Tuesday, July 29, 2008

¡Empanadas!

I'm just loving it here--maybe because I'm still on vacation and my classes haven't started yet...but I'm mostly looking forward to that, too. I've had the chance to take the micro (bus) without help, which is empowering and makes me realize that I have a special place in my heart for sketchy public transportation; it's really fun when you have it figured out. It's one of the best ways to feel like a local.

My Chilean family makes me feel good about myself because they tell me I speak Spanish well, although I don't feel like I am most of the time. At the same time, I definitely am thinking in Spanish more and understanding better. I found out the my family speaks Spanish because they lived in Canada for many years before moving back to Chile 2 years ago, and Victoria, my 11-year old Chilean sister, was born in Canada. So, they all speak English (but they always speak Spanish to me). Which is a plus because they know how to help me with words I don't know. Also, their Spanish is more standard than most Chileans' because they lived outside the (¿mala?) influence of Chilean Spanish for so long.

Here's a picture of my room; I have a huge bed and a TV and a big window, so I'm being spoiled (regaloneada). But, I'm not used to how cold it gets at night because there's no central heating... only my nose gets really cold, though.









And here is a not-very-good picture of Valparaíso from Viña (I live in Viña and take classes in Valpo) (and I'll take a better picture sometime soon). Soooo yeah it's pretty awesome, it's a 10 min walk to the beach from where I live. And Valparaíso is one of the most interesting, least-American (U.S.) cities ever; we walked through at least half a mile of fruit/vegetable/fish market today in the middle of the city, dogs and cats wandering around, colorful buildings on the hills, a big white church, and we got cheese empanadas (me encantan). I heard that there's a store around the corner from my house that sells like 30 different kinds of empanadas!!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

de Viña


A lot has happened since I arrived in Chile on Weds! Here are some highlights. In Olmué, a small town in the mountains where we’ve had our orientation for the past 3 days, we got to ride horses around the town. I was amazed because there are 19 students, and we each had our own Chilean horse to ride. (This program is really well-run, as this excursion demonstrated; they teach everything we need to know about living in Chile—like how to ride the “micro” bus, register for classes, recognize Chilean slang—and organize fun/active things like horseback riding for our spare time. We also had salsa/merengue lessons for an hour a half each night.) I hadn’t ever been let loose on a horse before, and it was pretty exciting even though we didn’t go very fast. We had to keeping pulling over (“¡a la derecha!”) for cars to go by on the dirt roads.

Today we hiked in the national park La Campana, which is like an island of preserved land between the two large cities Santiago (by the snow-capped Andes, where we flew in) and Valparaíso (the city I’m next to right now, now that I’m in my host family’s house in Viña del Mar). It’s interesting because on one side of a mountain, there’s one type of ecosystem that is cooler, with lots of green plants; on the other side, and on the opposing mountain face, the ecosystem is different, with cacti like the ones in roadrunner cartoons and fewer trees. It’s because the sun hits the earth at this point at a certain angle. Also in La Campana, we went into a copper mine that had been dug out by hand many years ago—kind of scary because, even though it was only a few hundred feet long, it was totally dark so we had to keep our hands above our heads to make sure not to hit the ceiling. …It’s obvious to me here that there aren’t the same preoccupations with safety that we enjoy in the U.S. This copper mine excursion is just one example; now that I’m in the city, I’m sure I’ll witness/participate in many more (My host father, René, demonstrated how everyone jaywalks in Viña del Mar, because there aren’t enough crosswalks, as he said. And how people drive somewhat…hmm…recklessly).

My host family is great, I like them a lot and I hope I made a good first impression. They’re very friendly and eager to make me feel at home, but also to let me know that I am free to come and go as I please. They pepper their speech with English words for my benefit, tomorrow I’m planning to ask how they learned so much English, but I think the answer is that it’s all around here, on signs and on TV, so I imagine anyone could pick up a lot of English if they wanted to learn.

The food is good too! I haven’t had anything that I hated yet, although some things I can’t say I liked, because I’m just not used to them. And so much meat! But I love cheese empanadas (hot cheese in a not-flakey pastry shell), and today we had empanadas with I think beef and onions, and, interestingly, one black olive, some slices of hardboiled egg, and 3 golden raisins inside. I think the rule with empanadas is that there are no rules. They’re really popular here.

I can understand with almost no problems the Spanish that our program directors and (thankfully!) my host family speak. But I’ll be interested (and I’m nervous) to see how I understand the university students and others, because many Chileans reputedly use a lot of slang and abbreviations, some of which I’ve learned here already (for example, for “where are you going?” it should be “¿Para dónde vas?”, but they’ll say “¿Pa’ ‘onde vai?”). We’ll see! On Monday, I think we’re going to the university to be shown around by a real, live student. Tomorrow, I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m looking forward to it. I almost forgot to say, it’s incredibly beautiful here, right by the ocean where you can see across the water Valparaíso laid out in lights on the hills. My host family drove me around to show me the place and I was sitting with my mouth open, it’s just really amazing.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Leaving tomorrow!

I'm flying out tomorrow, about 3 hours to Miami and then 8 hr 15 min to Santiago! Chile's in the same time zone but on a different ocean, which seems strange but isn't really (why should everything line up?). In Miami I'll meet most of the other students from all over the country who will be on the program with me in Valparaíso, along with some who'll be in Santiago.

My host family sounds great, I found out about them on Saturday. My host mom is Doña Ximena, my host dad is Don René, and Doña Ximena's father lives with them--his name is Raúl. Also I'll have an 11-year old sister named Victoria, so it will be just like home except with my own room... And there's a cat!

It's a new experience keeping a personal blog for me, so I hope it stays fun to read. For me it's also a good way to document my trip as it goes along--so if anything seems long/boring, just figure it's becuase I'm talking to myself. :)

Definitely next time I'll have lots to say!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Welcome!



Hi everyone! Check this space for news and pictures of my semester in Chile! Here's a photo of the Jersey shore to kick things off.