Things I miss about the US...
1. Thai and Mexican food
2. Having a car
3. Fountain drinks, free refills, free water
4. Understanding everything people say to me, participating in a conversation without exerting any mental energy
5. Pedestrians having the right of way, not being almost run over even when you have a green light to walk
6. Syllabi, classes that are organized and planned out in advance
7. A university that has a campus (rather than random buildings spread out throughout two cities)
8. People at home
9. Hot showers (rather than just warm)
10. Regular meal times
Things I love about Chile...
1. Avocado...bread...Chilean mustard
2. Completos, empanadas, chorillana...etc.
3. Speaking spanish
4. Living next to the ocean, watching the sunset over the water on the metro ride home
5. New friends, both Chileans and gringos
6. Having a new experience or adventure every single day
7. Chilean nightlife, terremotos, pisco sours, reggaeton
8. Walking a lot, easy public transportation
9. Old buildings, new buildings, Valpo, Vina
10. Learning about and experiencing a new culture
Monday, March 29, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Casi un mes!
So I've been in Chile for almost three and a half weeks and I'm finally starting to feel like I have a normal life here. I am adjusting more to my host family, who are still so great! I am also feeling more comfortable going places in Vina and feeling like I know where I am -- yesterday I traveled four times to places completely by myself, which was a first. Feeling like I could find my way around on my own was a great personal accomplishment. I am also starting to immerse myself a big more in the culture, hanging out with more Chileans and meeting more new people.
Last night I went with a few other gringas to a party at a Chilean's apartment with a bunch of other chilenos, and it was so much fun! I spoke Spanish essentially the entire night and got to know some really cool chileans. All the people I met and talked to were really nice and had a lot of insight to share with me about chilean culture, politics, etc. What was really interesting as well was the way in which we talked to one another. A few of the chilean guys that I was talking to knew English pretty well and wanted to practice speaking in English, so they would speak to me in English and I would respond in Spanish. It was such an interesting language experience, especially when I step back and think about the complexity of what was going on. The mixture of English and Spanish that has been occuring in my brain since I have been here is absolutely astounding. I find myself switching between languages while speaking, while thinking, even while writing this blog entry. Spanglish seems to be my new official language. I also find myself talking to people from home and actually struggling to think of words in English, which is never something I expected to experience, but is an interesting development. I am so interested in the way that these two languages are relating to one another within my brain, and I am excited to see what kind of developments will occur next.
I also started classes last week, which contributed to my developing feelings of normalcy. My Spanish classes are absolutely amazing. I am taking a grammar class and a Chilean culture class, both with amazing professors and both of which seem extremely interesting. I am also taking traditional dances of Chile, paper making, and Latin American history of the 20th century. The only class I have with Chileans is the paper making one, which is a little unfortunate, but I am participating in volunteer work and an intercambio buddy program (in which I am matched up with a Chilean buddy and we speak Spanish half of the time and English the other half so we can both practice), so those should provide opportunities to interact with chileans more.
Overall, things are going well! The tremors have calmed down, as well, which is always nice.
Last night I went with a few other gringas to a party at a Chilean's apartment with a bunch of other chilenos, and it was so much fun! I spoke Spanish essentially the entire night and got to know some really cool chileans. All the people I met and talked to were really nice and had a lot of insight to share with me about chilean culture, politics, etc. What was really interesting as well was the way in which we talked to one another. A few of the chilean guys that I was talking to knew English pretty well and wanted to practice speaking in English, so they would speak to me in English and I would respond in Spanish. It was such an interesting language experience, especially when I step back and think about the complexity of what was going on. The mixture of English and Spanish that has been occuring in my brain since I have been here is absolutely astounding. I find myself switching between languages while speaking, while thinking, even while writing this blog entry. Spanglish seems to be my new official language. I also find myself talking to people from home and actually struggling to think of words in English, which is never something I expected to experience, but is an interesting development. I am so interested in the way that these two languages are relating to one another within my brain, and I am excited to see what kind of developments will occur next.
I also started classes last week, which contributed to my developing feelings of normalcy. My Spanish classes are absolutely amazing. I am taking a grammar class and a Chilean culture class, both with amazing professors and both of which seem extremely interesting. I am also taking traditional dances of Chile, paper making, and Latin American history of the 20th century. The only class I have with Chileans is the paper making one, which is a little unfortunate, but I am participating in volunteer work and an intercambio buddy program (in which I am matched up with a Chilean buddy and we speak Spanish half of the time and English the other half so we can both practice), so those should provide opportunities to interact with chileans more.
Overall, things are going well! The tremors have calmed down, as well, which is always nice.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Run for the hills!
Oh my goodness...Chile is quakin'! This past week has been absolutely ridiculous. There have been at least 2 or 3 (a lot of times more!) earthquakes (or tremors "temblores" as they call them here) every single day! It's definitely not something you can get used to very easily. It's like we can never have a normal day here. Something is always changing (and not just the tectonic plates!). Today, however, was by far the worst one yet. I was at la Catolica (my university) taking a tour of the central buildling and we were on the fourth floor when a really big temblor hit (epicenter about an hour south of Santiago at a 6.9). The buildling shook for at least thirty seconds. Then two more quakes of similar strength struck about ten minutes and a half an hour after. Everyone seemed relatively calm, thinking that this was just a particularly strong temblor for the day but nothing to worry about. However, then everyone started running and they sounded the tsunami alarm. Everyone in my group walked up the fourth floor of the building we were in, but a lot of other students and staff ran for the hills....literally. I mean, when does that actually happen outside of the movies? After waiting on the fourth floor for an hour or so to wait for the threat to be lifted, we went down to the international office only to find out that those of us who live in Vina del Mar (meaning me) couldn't get home because the buses weren't running (assumably all the bus drivers also ran for the hills). And to top it all off, my cell phone wasn't working so I couldn't call my host mom to tell her I was ok. Fun times, no? So that was my day...interesting to say the least. I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to these daily quakes...but I surely won't get used to these tsunami threats. Hey, Chile, take a chill pill!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
First Week (ish) in CHILE!
So I've been in Chile for almost a week now...and what a week it has been! Who would have thought that I would be welcomed to my study abroad experience by an 8.8 earthquake! In fact, the fifth largest earthquake ever recorded in the world! Bienvenido a Chile! lol. So I got to Santiago on Thursday after a really long flight during which I definitely couldn't sleep and I met up with the ISA staff and the other students in the program. The ISA staff members are so amazing and nice and patient with us, they are great! Our orientation was good for those first two days. We went on some tours around Santiago; we went in a funicular, which is like a train that goes up a hill (there are apparently a lot of them in Valpo as well but I haven't really seen any yet), saw views of the city, went out to a bunch of restaurants, and even went out to a bar. It was fun to get to know the city a little bit and also to get to know the other students in the ISA program.
But on Friday night, or I guess it was Saturday morning, the fun really began. We had just gotten back from going out to a bar (by the way, pisco sour is my new friend) about an hour earlier and were asleep in bed when all of a sudden the beds start shaking violently and hey there's an earthquake! We were on the sixth floor of the hotel so it was pretty strong and it went on for a long time. It was definitely the strongest earthquake I've ever experienced, even living in So Cal. The funny part about the whole situation, however, was mine and my roommates' reactions to the "terremoto." Ironically, that same day our ISA staff told us in orientation that there are tremors all the time in Chile that can be up to like a 6 or 7 magnitude but they still aren't considered earthquakes because they happen like twice a day. She specificlaly told us that we would think it was an earthquake but it really was just a tremor. So when the 8.8 hit on Saturday, I definitely thought it was one of those tremors--which is wasn't. So me and my roommate Abigail (also from Willamette) just stayed in bed and didn't even go to the doorway because we thought it was something we were going to have to get used to happening every day. Then after it was over we decided we should just go back to sleep and not worry about evacuating or anything (so smart, right?). About ten minutes later an ISA staff member came to our room and told us that it had in fact been a real earthquake and we needed to grab our valuables and a jacket and go oustide and that we might be there for the whole night. So that was definitely interesting and made me feel pretty stupid.
The next day we had to leave Santiago and go to a city called Olmue because the hotel building we were in wasn't structurally sound (which is funny because they definitely let us sleep there for the rest of the night). We were going to go to our host families one day early and just settle in on Saturday, but because of the earthquake there were tsunami threats on the coast, which is where Vina and Valpo are located. So we spent two nights in a fancy resort in Olmue which wasn't too bad, although we didn't have internet for a while and we didn't really have much information about what was happening in Chile or with our program or anything so it was kind of stressful. I definitely felt isolated from my family/friends in the US and also from the rest of Chile. It felt kind of weird to be eating amazing food and relaxing by the pool at a fancy resort when there were at least 700 people dead and many more suffering from the earhquake all throughout the country. It was also really strange to look on facebook that same day and see an ad asking for help for Chile....the country that I was in. Crazy!
Yesterday we got to leave Olmue and finally meet our host families. My host family is one mom, Tere, and two sons, Franco (16) and Mauro (22). They are all really nice and I am getting along with them well so far--although I have trouble understanding them talking really fast but I'm getting better. They told me my Spanish is good though which is exciting! Well I better finish this up since it's getting pretty long but I just thought I'd update everyone on my situation. It's funny because this was really hard for me to write in English. I kept wanting to write things in Spanish or like do weird grammatical constructions, haha. Muy interesante. Entonces, hasta luego!
But on Friday night, or I guess it was Saturday morning, the fun really began. We had just gotten back from going out to a bar (by the way, pisco sour is my new friend) about an hour earlier and were asleep in bed when all of a sudden the beds start shaking violently and hey there's an earthquake! We were on the sixth floor of the hotel so it was pretty strong and it went on for a long time. It was definitely the strongest earthquake I've ever experienced, even living in So Cal. The funny part about the whole situation, however, was mine and my roommates' reactions to the "terremoto." Ironically, that same day our ISA staff told us in orientation that there are tremors all the time in Chile that can be up to like a 6 or 7 magnitude but they still aren't considered earthquakes because they happen like twice a day. She specificlaly told us that we would think it was an earthquake but it really was just a tremor. So when the 8.8 hit on Saturday, I definitely thought it was one of those tremors--which is wasn't. So me and my roommate Abigail (also from Willamette) just stayed in bed and didn't even go to the doorway because we thought it was something we were going to have to get used to happening every day. Then after it was over we decided we should just go back to sleep and not worry about evacuating or anything (so smart, right?). About ten minutes later an ISA staff member came to our room and told us that it had in fact been a real earthquake and we needed to grab our valuables and a jacket and go oustide and that we might be there for the whole night. So that was definitely interesting and made me feel pretty stupid.
The next day we had to leave Santiago and go to a city called Olmue because the hotel building we were in wasn't structurally sound (which is funny because they definitely let us sleep there for the rest of the night). We were going to go to our host families one day early and just settle in on Saturday, but because of the earthquake there were tsunami threats on the coast, which is where Vina and Valpo are located. So we spent two nights in a fancy resort in Olmue which wasn't too bad, although we didn't have internet for a while and we didn't really have much information about what was happening in Chile or with our program or anything so it was kind of stressful. I definitely felt isolated from my family/friends in the US and also from the rest of Chile. It felt kind of weird to be eating amazing food and relaxing by the pool at a fancy resort when there were at least 700 people dead and many more suffering from the earhquake all throughout the country. It was also really strange to look on facebook that same day and see an ad asking for help for Chile....the country that I was in. Crazy!
Yesterday we got to leave Olmue and finally meet our host families. My host family is one mom, Tere, and two sons, Franco (16) and Mauro (22). They are all really nice and I am getting along with them well so far--although I have trouble understanding them talking really fast but I'm getting better. They told me my Spanish is good though which is exciting! Well I better finish this up since it's getting pretty long but I just thought I'd update everyone on my situation. It's funny because this was really hard for me to write in English. I kept wanting to write things in Spanish or like do weird grammatical constructions, haha. Muy interesante. Entonces, hasta luego!
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