Finally feeling better

Last night, I was reminded in an email from my mother that it has been a few days since I updated you all on my adventures here. Honestly, Tuesday and Wednesday were more of the same. Nothing too exciting happening in the afternoons there. I’ve been attending my required workshops on Spanish writing, and it helps to have a little bit of last minute preparation for classes starting. I can’t believe it’s that time already, but I really am so excited. Honestly, it’s been sort of monotonous being here without a purpose. I feel like starting classes will help me to appreciate my free time more, and it will motivate me to do more things in the time I do have open for activities. I guess it all stems from my love of being busy.

Anyway, yesterday was a pretty full day for me between orientation in the morning and adventuring in the afternoon. The orientation at La Catolica was both professional and informative. We learned how to sign up for classes and how to get involved in a student group for foreign students that goes on excursions and hosts other events for us. They also gave us a planner (very much appreciated) and a course guide with maps in it (even more appreciated). The course guide also listed the office hours of the people in charge of class registration for different departments. That’s right, we have to register in person, on paper. As a person who loves to do EVERYTHING online, this blew my mind.  I am actually very scared of not getting into the classes I want, but for now, I am trying not to think about it. After examining the course guide, flipping through the class reviews from past CIEE students, talking to students at La Catolica, and looking at possible equivalents at Wisconsin I finally came up with a list of six classes I want to visit next week. I am hoping to take a Spanish communications course, a course called Great Authors taught by a supposedly awesome professor, a seminar on Latin American history, geography, and politics in the 20^th century, and a course on the culture and society of Latin America. It sounds like it could be a challenging semester, but I guess that is what I am here for-- to push myself and to learn more Spanish.

After the headache of scheduling was finally over, I walked around downtown with some friends. We decided to start our exploring by visiting a museum in Barrio Londres/ Paris. This museum turned out to be a house that had been the site of torture during the Pinochet dictatorship. I have to say; it was the most bare bones museum I had ever seen. The house had unpatched holes in the walls and the ceiling was peeling and there were barely any pictures or descriptions of what we were seeing. But it didn’t matter. The impact it had on me was even stronger than if it had looked just like every other museum. It was exceedingly haunting to stand in such a place and realize the amount of terror that had been inflicted on innocent people in those rooms only 30 years before. I can’t imagine how horrifying it would have been to live through the Pinochet era. The atrocities Pinochet committed are unforgivable, but I am glad to be in a place where I can learn about them. It’s amazing to me how little we learned about genocides and mass murders in the United States (excluding the Holocaust), but as somber as it is, I am proud to be broadening my understanding these kinds of issues in Chile.

After we had left the museum, we walked around the city a bit more and eventually wandered into the National Library. Let me tell you, it is a magnificent library. I would love to study there sometime, but I am afraid I would be distracted by the high ceilings and beautiful architecture. It would be so worth it though. After we finished traversing the library, we stopped at a café for delicious mochas and then headed back to the CIEE office. After the afternoon class session, I finally got my scores back from the placement test we all took about a week ago. It turns out that I won’t have to take the Spanish refresher course offered through CIEE, which made me very excited. Less excited about not having to take the class and more about the fact that I should be semi-prepared for my university courses. However, I was not so enthused to find out that while I had received a 95 percent on the written portion of the exam, I scored a mere 60 percent on the oral portion. Oops. Looks like I have a long way to go in terms of improving my speaking abilities. Still it’s good to know where I am at and to know in what areas I need to work harder.

After class a friend of Abing’s (my ex- cross country coach/ Spanish teacher) who is also studying at La Catolica this semester, told me about a party for exchange students that was being held at an infamous Chilean dive called “La Piojera”, so I agreed to meet him there in hopes of meeting more people at my university. When I finally arrived, the place was PACKED. We are talking standing room only. However, I did manage to get my hands on a terremoto since I was recommended to try one by everyone in my group. I’m going to be honest; I’m not a huge fan. Nonetheless, it was worth the trip to meet more people from not only the United States but also from Germany and Finland and Columbia. I hadn’t realized there were so many exchange students here, but apparently there are more than I thought. I was also introduced to a guy from Wisconsin, which shocked me since I thought that all Wisco students had to go through the CIEE program. Turns out he was from the business school, and they have a completely different program here. Go figure. I also struck up a conversation with a guy wearing a Minnesota Twins tee shirt. He was very excited that I had been able to identify the logo and told me that while he is from Chile, he spent a year as an exchange student at Burnsville high school back in 2007. Crazy! And not only that, but he told me that he is leaving in a week to study at none other than the University of Wisconsin- Madison for the next year. Small world! Of course, I requested that he find me on facebook so that we can hang out/ speak Spanish when I get back to the glorious town of Madison.

Anyway, I ended up talking to Abing’s friend, Ben, for most of the night and eventually we were both starving so we went to grab some food at a nearby café. I had some delicious Chilean street food called a churrasco. It’s basically just a bun with shredded steak, avocado, tomato, and a ton of mayo on it. I opted to eat mine without mayo, and the avocado really made it delicious. I’m definitely getting that again. When we were both full, we decided to meet up with his 27 year old Chilean roommate, Javier, to figure out what to do next. Javier drove from the grocery store to pick Ben and I up in his truck, and we all headed to a bar on the other side of town. While the bar usually charges a $12 cover, Ben and I were able to get in free for being Americans. Score. We all went in and chatted, and Javier taught us some more Chilenismos. It was a good time, and I liked being in such a relaxed atmosphere. However, by midnight it was finally time to go as Ben had orientation the next day, Javier had to work, and I had a doctor’s appointment, so Javier dropped me off at home safe and sound. On the whole, it was a pretty excellent night.

Today I had my third and final doctor’s appointment, and the crazy (but increasingly lovable) doctor told me that I am completely in the clear, so that was a total relief. It feels good to be almost back at full strength. Key word of course being almost. Although our class session today wasn’t the greatest (word to the wise: don’t choose to give a presentation on Chilean politics since everyone in Chile LOVES politics and therefore knows a ton about it), I am excited to go out to a concert tonight to see a cumbia band, and since I have never heard cumbia before it should be very interesting. Tomorrow I am hoping to get together with my host mom’s friend again to explore the city. However, I missed her call today, and I think I may have the wrong number for her, so it makes communicating kind of difficult. Oh how I am beginning to miss unlimited texting… Otherwise, things are good here. Finally starting to plan my trips and more importantly starting to feel at home.

Decisions, decisions

Today began like many of the others from this trip: with some serious throat pain and head pain. Thank you, lovely sinus infection. However, I woke up feeling happy to be going to the doctor for a pre-scheduled appointment at 10:45. My host mother and I took the metro to Salvador to get to my check-up, and we made the all-too-familiar walk to the depressing looking building that houses his office. This time we only had to wait about 10 minutes for the doctor, and there was none of the form-filling-out of the last time, since he had requested this appointment himself. I felt more comfortable striding into the doctor’s office and sitting in his chair this time, since I was pretty positive he wasn’t going to do the horrible nose throat test again. Indeed he merely peered into my nose and mouth and confirmed that I had a lot of congestion, and then he prescribed me another drug to take care of that. I also noted that this time he was wearing a full-on winter coat, which I took as a step up from his sweat suit from the time before. Anyway, he and my host mom spoke in rapid Spanish for a few minutes about her health and then we made an appointment for another check up on Friday. Ugh, so many appointments.

In any event, my host mom left me at the metro station to head to the office to work on a few things before lunch, so I took care of filling my own prescription. It was a very painless process, and I was even able to correct the pharmacist when he gave me 20 pills instead of 10. Something you should all know: prescriptions are RIDICULOUSLY CHEAP here. My prescription strength Sudafed (this is what I think it is based on a quick internet search) cost me $15 without showing any health insurance. Amazing. I then headed home because I had already missed my second orientation of the trip, which began at 10. Thankfully, I checked my schedule and I will actually be able to make it to the one at La Catolica! Such a deal. Since I was quite bored alone in the house, and I had nothing to do until we had class at 4:30, I took a nice leisurely stroll around the block for the next half hour. This time around I discovered a store where I can buy school supplies (harder to come by than you would think) and a delicious looking frozen yogurt store. Yum. When I finally got back, I only had to wait for about another half hour for my host mom to come back for lunch.

I’ll now skip to the afternoon class session, because everything in the middle is boring. I am just going to put it out there: I am a huge dork. I really liked today’s grammar refresher. I had forgotten how much I like the linear nature of the Spanish language, and getting a chance to practice grammatical structures and work on corrections reminded me of why I am here in the first place-- to learn more Spanish and to put all of my knowledge to use. Awesome. Plus, my headache and my throat ache had subsided on their own (partially thanks to some tea), so I was feeling much better. I also found out that I would be working with seven other people on an oral presentation on Chilean politics, which is good because of the four topics that was my first choice. I figure, I watch the news with my host mom everyday anyway, why not have even more to talk about with her? Our group is meeting up tomorrow morning to get things going.

Other than that, I received a couple of emails from La Catolica about general orientation information and class schedules, and I am starting to get nervous/ excited about taking classes there. Classes start on Monday though you aren’t required to enroll in them until the 12^th of August. I’m trying to narrow down what to take. I am also considering being a part of a program through the school called “Tandem” where you meet with another Chilean student once a week to work on your conversational Spanish. Should I do it? Let me know what you all think. Oh and I am also starting to consider what trips I might want to take this semester besides Buenos Aires with Jo in December (!!!) so there’s that as well. So many decisions.

So sick and tired of being sick and tired

So I believe I left off with my supposed run and trip to Bellas Artes on Saturday, neither of which ended up happening, but it’s okay. I have felt so sick the last couple of days that I could not muster up the energy to go on a run. However, it was a beautiful day yesterday (75 degrees and sunny!), so I simply could not justify being inside, even if I did feel sick. I finally forced myself outside at around 3:45 and took an hour-long walk around the area. I’m so glad I did, because the weather was beautiful and I discovered an absolutely perfect four-mile running route that I am definitely going to use when I stop being sick… if that day ever comes. Anyway, I returned from my walk at 5 and spent the rest of the evening hanging out with my host mom until it was time to go out for a friend’s birthday at 11.

A group of about a dozen of us met up at the metro station nearest to the Barrio Bellavista, an area known for its relatively cheap bars and dance clubs. From there we decided to go to a low-key bar/restaurant to start the night and then go to a dance club from there. As we walked along the streets a guy ushered us into his restaurant saying that he had room to seat all of us. Although it was a tight squeeze, we all fit, and I was happy to have a place to sit and chat and enjoy a drink. I got to have a great conversation with one of the girls in my group, and it was nice to learn more about her and everyone else in a more low-key setting than the classroom sessions. I also particularly enjoyed the musical samplings in this establishment and was very happy to show off my reggaeton knowledge as I sang one of my favorite songs, “Te Regalo Amores” word for word. I think it always surprises people that I love Spanish rap music so much, but what can I say? I try not to be predictable. After we had all had our fill at this slightly sketchy dive, the birthday girl said she really wanted to go dancing, and I couldn’t help but agree with her. So we all set off in search of a dance club. Unfortunately, the only good dance club in the area had an hour long line in front of it. No thank you. So we decided to head to a karaoke bar down the street. Sadly the karaoke bar only had seats for all of us away from where the karaoke was being done, so we basically ended up just chatting again and listening to the background music. Finally at around 2:30 we all decided to turn in as the dance club still had a ridiculously long line. I definitely had a good time, and I was happy for the relaxed atmosphere while I am still recuperating from this unending illness. However, next weekend I am really hoping to hit up a dance club. I did some searching for some good ones in the area, and I am more than ready to break it down when I am at full strength.

After quite a bit of sleep, I woke up this morning feeling sicker than before with a headache and toothache to accompany my nasal congestion. Hooray for sinusitis! However, I was able to laze around all morning, which I greatly appreciated, and by afternoon I was itching to do something. My host mom obliged by taking me to what I originally thought was going to be a park, but ended up being a super huge modern shopping mall. Thus began my first trip to the Chilean mall. I’m not going to lie, Chilean malls are just like American malls except everything is a lot more expensive. A lot of the stores are even the same and they play American music in the shops (see: Invisible Touch by Genesis and Stronger by Britney Spears). We saw Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Kenneth Cole, Aldo, and Nine West among numerous other stores. People were bustling around all over the place chatting and eating ice cream. Though I didn’t buy anything for myself, I did purchase un regalo for Peter, and I fell in love with a Chilean store called Foster. Too bad everything here is way out of my price range. I’ll have to be on the lookout for super great sales. Well after four hours of shopping I was both exhausted and hungry (the ice cream that people were continually walking around with looked so freaking good), so my host mom and I bought a few groceries and then headed home. Tonight I talked to Patrick for the first time, and it was nice to be updated on the goings-on with some of my mejores amigos in Madtown. Other than that, I am going to head to bed because I have to get up tomorrow for another doctor’s appointment. Although this was just supposed to be a quick check-in on my progress, I’m interested to see what he has to say about my newfound sinus infection. Ugh. What can I do besides sleep well, eat a ton of vitamins, and take my antibiotics? But such is life, I suppose.

Valpo

Here are the Valpo photos. Feel free to check them out and get a taste of my day yesterday :)

Oh and one more thing...

I ate raw ground beef last night. It was part of a dish called "crudo" where you mix mustard, ground beef, lemon juice, peas, onions, and relish together and eat it on bread. I'm not really sure how I felt about it. I mean, it wasn't horrible, but I'm kind of thinking it was a one time deal. Let's face it, it's not super easy for me to wrap my head around eating raw meat even if it is "cooked" by the acidity.

In this city of dreams...

Yesterday I woke up early in order to head the beach town of Valparaiso. We all met in the metro station of Tobalaba, which luckily for me, is just across the street from me, and from there we took an hour and a half bus trip to the beautiful city of  “Valpo”. In a lot of ways, Valpo reminds me of San Francisco with it’s view of a bay, its hills, and its colorful houses. However, we were not free to explore this lovely town right away, first we were ushered into this super cool jazz club to hear from a professor of poetry about the town. A few people commented afterwards about how much they liked his lecture, but personally, it was one of my least favorites of the trip. I would have much rather had that hour and a half to poke around Valpo than listen to his incredibly unfocused and rambling lecture. Plus, he tried to tell us that not many cities were built around ports, which made me go, “Huh?” because I feel like most cities I can think of are built around some kind of port but whatever. After his speech, we sat down for lunch in the same club and admired the beauty of the extravagant space. It would be awesome to return there for a drink and some jazz in the future. Lunch was thoroughly filling, but I’m beginning to think the Chileans like too many pudding-like substances for my taste. See: Manjar. Anyway, we finally departed for my favorite part of the day—a tour of poet Pablo Neruda’s house. Neruda’s house is up on a hill and the view from his house is truly spectacular. I can now understand how he was able to draw so much inspiration from Valparaiso. We walked around the inside, and it was just as crazy and eclectic as any poet’s house should be. He had a custom-made fireplace that looked like an egg and a giant carousel horse in his living room. Perfection. There were tons of huge windows in the house, and the views from every room were dazzling; I couldn’t help but wish I lived in a place like that. When it was finally time to leave, I had to snag a couple of postcards as mementos of the trip.

The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around the streets of Valpo, and taking pictures of some of the crazy amazing street art done by the rogue artists in the town. We saw some pretty cool stuff (see: my pictures), but I had definitely gotten tired by the end of the afternoon. Needless to say, I promptly fell asleep on the bus. Unfortunately, I think that when I got rid of my strep throat, I acquired a sinus infection because I have been incredibly congested for the last couple of days. I really just wish I could be healthy in Chile, but the universe seems to have turned against me. Oh well. I am doing as much as I can to get better, and I am drinking a TON of tea. Hopefully by the time classes start I will be feeling 100 percent again.

When I finally returned home at 7:45, I quickly changed clothes in order to go out with a couple of friends of my host mom. Once I was ready, we purchased wine and chocolates to bring as gifts to the girls and headed to the bus station. As is my life in Chile, we had bad luck with the bus and had to wait 20 minutes for the one we needed to come, but we finally made it to their house at 9:15. The girls’ names are Francisca and Natalia, and they were both super nice. Francisca is 18 and in her last year of high school while Natalia is 23 and finishing her studies at La Catolica. We all ate snacks and chatted about different topics, and as it turns out, Francisca knows a ton about politics. She seems really smart, and it was nice to just listen as she and my host mom discussed things that are going on in the political arena. After a glass of wine, we dropped off Maria Elena at our apartment and then the girls took me on a driving tour of different parts of the city. They showed me where the richest people live and which areas to avoid at all costs. Finally we ended up at a pretty classy bar in an area called las Tarrias. We each had a drink and talked and laughed and got to know each other better. It was very relaxed, which was definitely something I needed. By 1 am we were all pretty tired though, so Natalia drove me home. However, the girls promised to call me soon so that we could hang out again. Who knows? Maybe I’ll actually have some Chilean friends after all.

This afternoon I think I’m going to go for my first run of the trip, and then I’m heading to the Museum of Bellas Artes with some friends. As for tonight… it’s a friend from the group's 21^st birthday so we’ll see how this goes. Haha.

Harry Potter and the giant theater

So I would say that my "day" actually started last night when my carbon monoxide detector started to go off at around 1:30 in the morning. It gave both my host mom and I quite a start, and we quickly tried to shut it off and identify the source of its freakout. We finally determined, with the help of the concierge (who I was not excited to see while I was in my pajamas and half-awake), that the smell of gasoline was coming from my room, where the heater had been for a couple of hours that night. In order to make sure I didn't die, my host mom opened my windows to ventilate my room. I was both glad to have the windows open so I would stay safe, and super unhappy to have cold air flood into my room. She also told me that I can no longer have the heater in my bedroom because there isn't enough ventilation. Sigh. You win some, you lose some. But anyway, it took me a little while to fall back asleep since I was still a little freaked out, but I woke up feeling fine.

Today was a short day of class and a couple of lectures. The lectures were on the economy and the indigenous peoples of Chile. No offense to the economists and anthropologists of the group, but these were not my favorite topics. I did my best to learn something and pay attention, but it was kind of difficult to stay focused while their soothing voices lectured in a non-native language. Still I picked up a few interesting tidbits of information.

After class was over, about 15 of us departed to see Harry Potter in a theater in one of the residential areas. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the movie theater was just like those in the United States except bigger and slightly more modern. And with more food options. It was also super packed with people since everyone is on vacation right now, and we ended up having to wait in line for about a half hour to get tickets. However, it was so worth it. Even with the slightly annoying subtitles running along the bottom, I loved every second of the last installment of Harry Potter (though my friend and I did note that they did a questionable job aging the actors in the last scene.) I laughed, I cried (a lot), and I left the theater thoroughly satisfied and incredibly tired after the adventures of the night before.

Tonight I plan to go to bed early in preparation for our trip to the coastal town of Valparaiso and our tour of poet, Pablo Neruda's house. Tomorrow night I am also going out with friends of my host mom which should be a lot of fun. I'll get to meet some actual Chileans! No voy a ser una gringa nada mas, poh!

Mi educacion

So… protests are cool and all, but when they impact my ability to take classes I kind of wish the president would speed up this whole reformation and resolution process. Today we met with an academic advisor from the University of Chile (one of the three universities at which we can take classes this semester), and basically, his advice was take one of about five classes or stay until January. Ummm not happening. It looks like my hope of experiencing a public university in Chile may have been crushed for this semester. It makes me sad because the students from the University of Chile that we have met so far have been super awesome (see: Amaranta, our super cool Chilean guide friend). However, I’m not sure I want to take classes that will most likely be made up entirely of gringos in order to be in the fun public school atmosphere. Alas, I have resigned myself to the idea that I will take all of my classes at La Universidad Catolica (UC or La Catolica for short), which is fine because it is a great school, and as I learned today it has a beautiful campus.

Before I had my dreams of public school in Chile crushed by my academic “advisor”, we started the day at the San Joaquin campus of la Universidad Catolica. San Joaquin is about a 30 minute metro commute from my apartment, and it is in sort of a sketchy neighborhood, but I thought it was totally worth it. The campus has lots of passageways and a lovely courtyard with a fountain that would be a perfect place to eat lunch. It was also the location of this morning’s Spanish diagnostic test. I think I am still a little rusty when it comes to Spanish grammar, or that’s how I felt upon completing the 5 page long exam. However, I’m not too worried because if I don’t do well on this test the worst that happens is that I get put in "Spanish for gringos" to improve my Spanish grammar. A little refresher never hurt anybody. It will be good to see where I am at though, because thus far I have no clue how prepared I am going to be for my classes in the Chilean universities. I am starting to freak out a little as I flip through the course catalogs. All of the classes sound really complicated and difficult, and I fear that my hopes of taking a linguistics course here might be destroyed by the fact that I really don’t understand Spanish that well in comparison to the native speaking students. I guess we’ll just have to see.

Anyway, the rest of my afternoon was spent hanging around the CIEE office in downtown Santiago and walking around the area with a few new friends. It was pretty relaxed. After we had our advising meeting, a few of us decided to go shopping in a Chilean department store that was having a liquidation of their stock. I got some seriously good deals but still probably spent too much money. Oops. I’ll need to be more careful in the future to limit my spending to souvenirs and more lasting items. I was going to go for a drink with the three of them, but since I am still in recovery from my illness, I thought it would be better that I return home. It’s a shame since they are all so nice, and I think it would have been fun, but no matter, I’ll just have to make up for it in good times this weekend when I am at full health again.

On the home front, I am becoming a bit of a homebody here. I’m not sure how it happened, but I like being in the apartment with my host mom. She takes good care of me, and conversing with her is relaxing. She also now calls me "Caryncita" which I find very endearing. This isn’t to say that I don’t want to go out, merely that I like being home as well. Tonight we actually got to eat meat! It was very strange though, as it was a hamburger patty with salad on top of it. Not quite what I had expected, but I’ll take it. She is also planning to introduce me to some of her friends this week, so I can go out with them and meet more Chileans. The two girls are 18 and 23, so that could be fun I think. It will be nice to spend more time with the Chileans, and I think it will definitely help me learn more Spanish. I’ll let you know how it all goes…

And by the way...

For those who couldn't see the photos before, that should be fixed now. Ciao.

Protests follow me wherever I go

I’m just going to put it out there: Madison, you suck at protesting. There, I said it. While eating lunch today, I saw video footage of the protests about education here in Chile, and they look awesome. Imagine thousands of students dressed in costume, dancing in tandem. It’s a flash mob with a message, and it is amazing. Today was Dragon Ball Z themed, so they passed a giant ball throughout the Plaza de Armas. When I say giant I mean, freaking huge, like able to fit 20 beach balls within it. We also witnessed a guy with a flag jogging laps around La Moneda as part of a month of non-stop running to send a message to the government. As a runner, I thought it was a very cool and powerful sign. Sort of like Relay for Life except way longer and when it isn’t your turn to run, you actually get to sleep. I seriously wish we could participate in protests here, because I would be all over protesting like this, but unfortunately, CIEE doesn’t allow it, on behalf of our safety. However, I am enjoying learning about the protests and seeing the ways the Chilean students can be peaceful and creative but still get their point across.

In any event, watching protests wasn’t all we did today. When I finally showed up to school at 3 pm (I slept in late in the morning and had a leisurely lunch in order to ensure that I would heal up), I came in directly in the middle of a lecture from a professor from the University of Diego Portales. From what I could gather, he was lecturing about Chilean politics.  I was able to learn a bit more about the current Chilean political environment, and I actually found it quite interesting. It’s funny, I enjoy watching the news and learning about history more here than I ever did in the United States. Chile is fascinating to me because it is a country with such potential for growth, and their democracy is so new that change actually seems to happen here on a fairly regular basis. Not to mention, in less than 20 years of democracy they were able to do what the United States still hasn’t done: elect a woman as president. This is not to say that I don’t miss the U.S. a lot or that I don’t have pride in my country, simply that learning about the Chilean political climate is refreshing even if it is still plagued with many of the issues we are dealing with in the United States. After our lecture, we got together with our tutors and were given a walking tour of the historical area of downtown Santiago such as El Palacio de la Moneda, Cerro Santa Lucia, and the heart of the Universidad de Chile’s campus. The main campus building was covered in signs from the protest, which I found particularly interesting. I feel like even in as liberal a climate as Madison, it would be frowned upon to graffiti Abe Lincoln and put signs all over Bascom Hall. But maybe that’s just me. As we walked around, our tutor explained the history of each of the buildings and how they relate to the current political situation. She did give everything a distinctly liberal tint, which I didn’t necessarily mind, but which apparently bothered a man standing near our group who started yelling at us that it was all lies. Anyway, political bias aside it was crazy to stand in front of the sight of a major coup d’état and hear about how the ex-president committed suicide there when he found out that Pinochet had decided to take over the country. It was especially interesting because today in Chile, it was finally confirmed and announced that it was suicide and not assassination, because up until this point there had been speculation of the contrary. After this historical and political journey, we went to a café to have sandwiches and pisco sours before heading home to our families. Tonight as I was watching the news (if you couldn’t tell by now, I watch the news A LOT here), I saw the professor who had given us a lecture today on CNN Chile talking about the change of cabinet here. I thought that was pretty much the coolest thing ever, since even in Madison it is rare to see one of your professors on national news.

Other than my new political fervor, I am feeling a lot better which makes me very happy. I hope to be back to 100 percent health tomorrow. We also have to take a diagnostic test of our Spanish abilities tomorrow, which makes me kind of nervous. I feel like my Spanish may be worsening as time goes on as opposed to getting better. But maybe I am just paranoid. I am also going basically vegetarian here, which is kind of interesting. My host mom feeds me well, but we haven’t eaten meat in the last few days. I kind of miss it. I also miss sweets, so I am secretly stashing peanut M&Ms in my desk. Yes, this is what my life has come to. Well, I should sleep I suppose. I actually have to wake up for class tomorrow. Ciao for now.

My pics up until this point-- click the picture!

Keep your head up

Okay, well let’s start with the bad news: I have strep throat. After walking to eight different doctor’s offices across the area in the middle of winter, we were finally able to find a doctor with an open slot who could tell me what I had already guessed. Granted his methods of deducing this were slightly questionable—no, I do not appreciate having a HORRIBLE tasting numbing spray put in my nose and throat and then having a painful little tube with a camera on it stuck down my nose and throat without my consent—but whatever. He got the job done. So four and a half hours after initially setting out, Maria Elena and I returned home, exhausted and mega hungry, with our prescriptions in hand. We immediately took the antibiotic and the fast acting pain reliever (thank God), and then ate since we were starving from not eating since 10 am. After lunch was done, we both fell asleep.

Now the good news: What started as the worst day ever has turned into quite a learning experience. Turns out I had another thing confirmed for me today. My host mom is pretty much awesome. Tonight as we were eating dinner I sort of had a breakdown from my exhaustion and frustration and feelings of isolation, and you know what? She made me fell a lot better. She explained to me that in the scheme of things this is all very small, which I have known all along of course but is hard to keep in perspective when you feel sick and alone. She then told me about how when she was 18 she moved from her coastal town to Santiago, and she felt very alone, but it made her stronger. And then when her son was five his father passed away and left her alone and in a bad economic situation, but this too made her stronger. And when her son went to study in Europe for graduate school (luckily, he had brought lots of friends with him to America for his undergrad), he felt very alone but this made him stronger. So as she was telling me all of this everything sort of came at me in a rush, and I felt quite overwhelmed. Her story was so sad and my life is so easy and I really feel positive about this experience and I am excited to be here but at the same time it’s hard to be sick and I’m anxious about learning the language and making friends and everything else. I tried to explain all of this to her, but I think it all came out as a jumbled mess. Anyway, I know that it if big things like what happened to her and her son make you stronger, then relatively little things like this can drive me forward, and if this is the lowest point of my trip then thank God for that because this is easy. And I really do feel so positive about everything. I think the greatest part about this is learning to let go, and I’ve really been working on it. It takes time, but I’m working on it. So anyway, we hugged it out and she explained to me that her home really is my home, and I don’t think I could ever express the gratitude I felt for that sentiment so I just nodded. As an icing on the cake, I checked the facebook group set up for people in my program only to find out that not only was no one mad at me (at least that they said) for exposing them to strep, a bunch of people had wrote telling me to get better, which made me smile. As did the encouraging messages from my friends at home (special shout outs to Lindzey and Fergalicious for the videos). In any event, I am feeling much better emotionally and physically now, and I thought I would share a video of my own with you. The message has been very encouraging to me, and I think the video is kind of awesome. Take a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQVuQvfYKtI

Mercado, medicina, y mala suerte

So I believe I left off at the market, and I’m going to start this post with that because it is easier. In any event, yesterday morning we went to a giant market in the middle of Santiago called “La Vega”. La Vega is basically the Minnesota State Fair meets Madison Farmers market gone sketchy. We were fortunate enough to get a ride with a friend of my host mom. In the car, I listened as they chatted. Even though I didn’t know many of the people they were talking about I understood a lot more than they thought I did. For example, I heard my host mom and her friend agree that they should set me up with the son of my host mom’s friend. Ugh. No thank you. The last thing I need is a 25 year old Chilean boyfriend who she described as a “big baby”. Anyway, after some seriously crazy driving we arrived at the market, and I was immediately swept up by the energy. People were everywhere, and as my host mom and her friend purchased tons of cheap (and fresh) fruits and vegetables I couldn’t help but admire the crowds. I immediately decided that I would have to return to the market without her, not just because of all of the wonderful delicious freshness (we got five huge tomatoes for 2 dollars), but because my host mom only eats healthy foods and I secretly wanted to purchase the Peruvian candy for sale at one of the Peruvian owned stands. God, I miss that stuff. Chilean candy is not the same. By the time we were done at the market we had purchased potatoes, tomatoes, avocados, bananas, lemons, carrots, beets, lettuce, pears, broccoli, artichokes, kiwi, a precut veggie mix, some weird squash-like thing I can’t remember the name of and a few other things. All for us. I guess I’m going to HAVE to start eating healthier. Haha. Anyway, so then we returned home and she made lunch while I rested as I was still feeling sick and quite tired. Lunch was multiple courses with avocado and tomato salad, bread, chicken and veggies, rice with carrots, and fruit for dessert. By the time that was all over, I was so full I HAD to nap. And nap we did. Three hours later, I woke up feeling slightly better, but then immediately feeling worse when I found out that my host mom was feeling quite sick… with a sore throat. I felt so guilty for getting her sick, I couldn’t handle it. I didn’t know what to say. Anyway, I did my best to help her prepare dinner since I knew she didn’t feel well, but we ended up just having a very small dinner of ham and cheese sandwiches and of course, my new favorite beverage, tea. I thought we were going to just turn in early only to find out that her friend, Luis was coming over. Luis finally arrived at around 8:15 with a bottle of wine in hand, and let me tell you, it was an experience. What started as a polite conversation about how I am enjoying Santiago, what I am studying, where I live in the United States (I gathered that Luis lived there for about 10 years in Miami, Houston, San Francisco, and New York), and the quirks of the Chilean language and accent somehow turned (with the help of two glasses of wine for Luis, of course) into a two hour long discussion of Chilean politics. Let me make one thing clear: I was warned about this. Our instructor at CIEE told us that discussing politics is one of the favorite pastimes of the Chileans. She wasn’t kidding. I tried to keep up with the very passionate political debate. The funny thing was though, I could tell both sides felt strongly, but they were still able to listen to each other and neither person raised their voice. This was incredibly impressive to me coming from a culture where everyone takes politics so personally. It was actually kind of refreshing, and I learned a lot from listening to them. However, eventually I grew incredibly tired and finally went to bed in my freezing cold room at 12:30.

Sleeping was a mess. I woke up every four hours to my throat being in agony, and me needing to take ibuprofen. I am fairly convinced I have strep throat, and I feel awful about giving it to my host mom since she is doing worse than I am. Even though my parents tried to calm me down about it, I still felt bad about it all day. However, it was still comforting to see mom and dad via skype and hear about what is going on in Minnesota. I miss home a lot, especially since I feel cursed in Chile. All I have had since I got here is bad luck, and it is beginning to make me quite sad. But honestly there is nothing to do except keep on keeping on. Sigh. Anyway, I emailed the director telling him I was sick and tried to enjoy a relaxed morning with my very sick host mom. Seeing her just makes the guilt well up inside me because both of us know that it is my fault that she is sick. But it costs three times as much to go to the doctor in Chile on the weekends so we have to tough it out until tomorrow. In any event, after lunch I finally escaped to get bread at the supermarket across the street where I secretly also purchased some chocolate. My sweet tooth is too much to just eat fruit for dessert. Lo siento, host mom. I snuck my chocolate into my suitcase upon my return and headed off with a friend who lives close to me to another friend’s house to prepare for the Chilean match against Venezuela! I’m going to make a long story short on this one: Seeing the game with about a hundred Chileans in the center of Santiago on a giant screen in the streets—awesome. Losing to Venezuela when we were supposed to win—not so awesome. Seriously, my bad luck continues. It felt like losing the Rose Bowl all over again, that’s how sad I was. I had studied the Chilean national team all day only to have my team of choice fall again to a supposedly lesser team. Underdog stories are only cool when you are the underdog. Not when you are playing them. Well, then our group decided to all head home, depressed as we were and also down two cell phones (two people lost them while we were watching the game, fortunately I was not one of them.) Anyway, so I arrived home sad and sick. Tomorrow morning I am finally going to the doctor with my host mom, which is good, but it’s at times like this that I can’t help but miss home. I wish I could just curl up on the futon and watch a movie with Patrick or sit at home with Stuart next to me and read a book. Hopefully with a new day will come renewed energy, because right now I am unfortunately feeling very worn down. 

And one more tiny thing I forgot to mention...

I felt my first earthquake last night. It shook the entire floor of the tenth floor apartment. At first, I thought my host mom said it was just the wind. Nope. Haha. Anyway, we're fine, but it was certainly a very strange feeling. I am not used to quakes, even baby quakes, but since my host mom wasn't concerned neither was I.

Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday...

I am pleased to report that my first Friday in Chile was just as crazy as all of my other days here so far. It started with me running late, which is very strange for me as a type A person who always seems to be five minutes early. My host mom lost track of time, and she forgot to wake me up at 8:30 (I need to get an alarm clock), so we were racing about in order to arrive at the cell phone store at 10. Luckily, the store is pretty close to where we live so I was able to get there just on time. Anyway, I got a cell phone which makes me VERY happy, even if it is pay as you go and it is the cheapest, saddest phone ever. I’ve already gotten quite a bit of use out of it, but I need to be careful not to drain all of my money right away even though it is tempting to communicate like when I had unlimited texting. We also all began to exchange phone numbers right away, which I definitely think will come in handy. After acquiring a cell phone we returned to the hotel we had been at for the previous few days in order to learn a bit more about speaking in Spanish with Chileans and with our friends and all of that. Then we had a nice lunch near the hotel, and I got to learn about all the different host families that people have. I’m not going to lie, I am definitely jealous of the guy in the group with the yellow lab puppy (!!!), but I’ll just have to make sure to visit it. My favorite part of the day, however, came in the afternoon when we were introduced to Chilean students from the universities that we are going to be studying at. There were three of them, and after breaking into groups, I got placed with Amaranta. She was supposed to show us how to use the metro system, so she took us to the nearest station and we boarded in the direction of downtown. The metros were freaking packed! I can’t explain to you how full they were. I’m definitely going to need to be careful with my purse, because it would be super easy to steal something out of it in such a tight space. Anyway, when we arrived in Santiago downtown, in an area called Bellas Artes, I was amazed at the beauty, and I realized how much I have to explore still!  We walked around a bit, and then eventually headed into a bar that was quite empty to sit down and chat. The bar was “American” themed, but also super weird, with hatchets and stuff like that on the walls. Strange décor but pretty cool still. It was so nice to talk with a real Chilean student about school and life in the city. Amaranta was pretty hilarious, and she explained to us where to “carretear” and what is happening with the protests at the universities (if you don’t know what I am talking about, look it up, it’s huge here).  I enjoyed the atmosphere and a cerveza and we explained to her certain things about the US, like country music and square dancing, while she taught us some chilenismos, of which there are many. Finally, we returned to the hotel on an even more packed metro to the hotel around 6 where my host mom picked me up and walked me home. When we got back to her apartment, she realized that we didn’t have any bread so we made my first stop to the Chilean grocery store. I have no clue why grocery stores fascinate me so much, but they do. Looking around at all the different food and seeing all the people was just awesome. Yeah I am a food dork and a people watcher. I can’t help myself sometimes. I want to try EVERYTHING in that store that isn’t from the US. I don’t think my host mom realizes what an eater I am. Haha. Anyway, I tried to teach her what some food items and other things are in English, because she wants to learn English. However, I also explained to her that I would have no idea where to start. Any suggestions?

I happily gazed around at all the activity as my host mom paid for the food (just a few things, ham, cheese, and bread, I don’t have the heart to tell her that I don’t like ham. Yes, dad, I know what you and Peter are thinking right now. Don’t even say it.) However, once we left the store she told me that four different guys had turned to each other and said things like, “Esta Buena, la gringa!” and “Que linda, la gringa!” which embarrassed me a lot. She thought it was hilarious that I was oblivious to all of this. Apparently I am going to get a lot of attention for being tall (for their standards), blonde, and pale in this city. Oh well. So after that incident we came back to make dinner and chat. My host mom was super interested in my past relationships and my lack of love life. I sincerely hope she does not try to set me up with anyone, as that could be super awkward. As we watched the news (I am going to be SO well informed about foreign affairs by the time I leave), we discussed the movies and actors she likes. Turns out she is a huge fan of Ashton Kutcher, Hugh Grant, Matthew McConaughey, and wait for it, Charlie Sheen. Ahahahaha. I laughed so hard as she described what kind of boyfriend Matthew McConaughey would be and how Hugh Grant had a sort of “charm” (a word I taught her) about him. Anyway, after dinner I got ready to go out for my first time in Chile! We had decided earlier to go to a club where one of the girls in my group’s host brother was DJing. So I made plans with Hannah, the girl who lives closest to me to take the metro at 11 (early by Chilean standards) to the club, which was in Bellavista, a trendy part of town for University students. My host mom insisted in walking me to the station, which is across the street, and upon arriving we realized that they stop letting people in at 11 and not 11:30, so I yelled goodbye and raced to catch up with Hannah. However, we made it with a little time to spare. We actually went the wrong way on the metro at first (typical me, getting lost), but quickly realized our mistake and set off in the other direction. The metro is SUPER easy to use, and I live on both the red and blue lines. The red line is the most popular as it goes straight through downtown, so I really couldn’t ask for a better location. Anyway, we took that towards Bellavista and then located the club with relative ease. Once we got ushered inside by the bouncer who could tell how confused we were, I immediately noticed how huge the place was. There were a couple bars and lots of room for sitting and talking which is of course what we did at first. All in all, it was a fun night filled with dancing (so so so many people there!), talking to new people (we met Canadians, Peruvians, and of course Chileans), socializing with my friends from CIEE (there were about 10-12 of us there), enjoying the DJ skills of Natalie’s host brother, and overall, improving my Spanish. It was actually pretty cool, because three different Chileans commented on how good my Spanish was. So sweet of them, and I now have hope of not failing my classes! We finally left the club at four am, which is still early for Chileans since apparently their bars never close, and after a short but way too expensive cab ride, I arrived safely at my apartment, said goodbye to Hannah and crashed in my bed.

Unfortunately, I am still sick and if this doesn’t improve, my host mom plans to take me to the doctor on Monday. I’m kind of scared, because I am unfamiliar with their health care system, and while I believe that she would recommend a good doctor, I don’t know how to communicate with him or how to pay for the medical care or anything. So I am praying that I get better before then, or at least start to improve significantly. Anyway, we are headed to the market now, but I plan to have a more relaxing day to try to counter my crazy Friday. Oh, Santiago, I don’t want to take in too much of you too soon.

¡Mis primeros dias en Chile!

I suppose I should start by welcoming you all to my Chilean adventure. It has been a whirlwind thus far, so much so that I’m not even sure where to begin. I suppose I should start at the airport where I said goodbye to the last of everyone who is familiar to me. After an hour and a half delay, my flight finally departed for Atlanta. The flight was relatively smooth, and I sat next to a couple from Mississippi and across from a woman with a baby who was from Georgia. They were all very excited to hear about my trip to Chile when they saw me reading the guidebook. I explained my travels as they smiled and nodded. Once we finally arrived in Atlanta the plane taxied around for a half hour which was frustrating as we were an hour late already, but I had plenty of time to kill during my four hour layover, so I merely chatted with the Mississippi couple about their son in the Air Force and other small things. Once we finally got off the plane, a gentleman from Alabama showed me where to catch the tram to get to the International terminal. He walked very fast but was incredibly helpful. After this trip, I can say I genuinely believe in Southern hospitality. From there I ate dinner in the airport food court and then read a magazine until it was time to board the airplane. I guess the gentleman seated next to me wanted to sit alone, because upon seeing me he vanished into the back of the plane, never to be seen again for the rest of the flight. This was perfectly okay with me as I got both seats to myself. I still slept quite tumultuously, but I suppose it was better than it would have been if he were there since I had more room to spread out. Plus, he smelled so strongly of cologne that it made me rather nauseous. The flight sped by as I slept on and off for the next eight hours. It was like taking eight continuous naps more than anything else. By the time we arrived in the Santiago airport, I felt tired and relatively dirty, but I had to focus on navigating customs and inspection, both of which were pretty easy. They didn’t ask me many questions at all, though that was probably a good thing since they talk super fast. I also paid my $140 tourism fee since I don’t yet have a student visa. Chile is very strict about this kind of thing, so I am going to need to get it as soon as possible.  From there I got my luggage, and was greeted by two of the program directors, Natalia and Claudia. They directed me towards where the rest of the group was seated.

In total, there are about 30 of us in the program. Most of us departed together to the hotel. On the bus I tried to learn everyone’s names, but it was rather difficult. I am getting better but still struggling a little. Honestly, I love making new friends and meeting new people but 30 at once was rather overwhelming. I feel like I do better in a small group setting, but maybe that is just me. But anyway we made it to our hotel, Hotel Stanford, in the “comuna” as they call it of Providencia. Providencia is very close to the city center in contrast to places like the airport. Once there we walked around a bit to get coffee and exchange money. Then we had a nice lunch in a cute little café nearby. It was during lunch and walking around that I started to meet more and more people. I’ve been trying to showcase the more talkative side of my personality, but it is sometimes a challenge because in new social situations I have a tendency to take a step back and “feel out the situation” as my mom would say rather than jump right in and make conversation. I think I seem rather quiet and reserved in comparison to some people in the group, but I hope that in time they get to see just how crazy I really am.

Anyway, after lunch we free time where I showered and took a nice nap. It was then that I started to feel rather sick. My throat had been hurting since the plane ride, but by this point it had worsened. Still I took an advil and figured it was just something from the plane. We then had a presentation from the director—completely in Spanish, and then departed for dinner in the trendy Bellavista neighborhood that lies between Santiago Central and Providencia.

Dinner was a struggle for me because I was so freaking tired from my lack of stable sleep the night before, and the Chileans like to take their time and eat multiple courses so while I enjoyed the three course meal, I was very glad to be able to return to the hotel and go to sleep when it was over. My throat also had begun to hurt even worse, and I thought sleep might help me to feel better. Upon returning to the hotel, a group of people decided to go out, and although it sounded super fun, and I was amazingly tempted, I decided to pass for the sake of my health. However, after a good night’s sleep I still didn’t feel better. In fact, I felt worse. I sort of dragged through today’s activities, trying to maintain a certain amount of energy, but in reality my throat hurt so badly that it was hard to focus on anything else. Advil is the only thing that seems to help, but even that only masks the pain. I really hope it goes away soon. Anyway, during today’s activities we finally received the much anticipated information about our host families. Some people have families of 5 with adults and children of all ages, some have a mother/ daughter pair, some have two adults and a few older siblings. I, however, like a few others in my group live with just one other person. At first, I didn’t know much about her other than the fact that she lived in Providencia (there are only three of us with host families in Providencia), and that she made me a very pretty letter. However, by the time I met her I don’t think I made a very good first impression as I felt incredibly sick and feverish. Maria Elena, that’s her name, is incredibly kind though. We took a taxi to her apartment, and she immediately took my temperature and ushered me to bed in my new room which is rather empty but feels more like home already. She reminds me of a combination of my mom and my Grandma Cookie and my Grandma Thor. I’m not sure why this is, but she just does. She has aspects of all of their personalities. Anyway, after I awoke from my nap I felt better, but still shaky but then she gave me the biggest hug and I felt so much better. I feel like it is easy to feel isolated in this new place, but with her, I feel like I have an instant friend. It is nice to have someone to take care of you when you are anxious and sick. Anyway, she insisted I eat some honey and then she had prepared a delicious dinner, so we sat down to eat and talk. Squash soup, a salad with lemon juice (not dressing oddly enough, I may need to expose her to ranch), and some beef and steamed veggies along with a glass of wine certainly made me full and more at home. I learned that she has a son who left Chile at age 19 to study in the US. He is now married to an American and living in San Francisco where he works on films. He is 31 years old. She is 62-years old, works for an insurance company, is a non-practicing catholic, enjoys the Rolling Stones and watching the news, and plans to visit her son in America at the beginning of next year. She also told me that she thinks my Spanish is quite good which made me very happy. I was afraid that we wouldn’t be able to understand each other but things have been quite smooth. We communicate well, and I am already beginning to think in Spanish. Crazy, right? In any event, after dinner she gave me time to unpack my things and showed me how to use the calefont—the gas heater used to heat the water for showering and such and how to use the internet. However, she couldn’t remember the password to the wifi, so we are going to have to ask her nephew about that one since he set it up. I also got a little time to admire the beautiful view from my bedroom window. I'll have to post pictures since it isn't indescribably beautiful. I can see the entire city scape plus the snow covered mountains. Anyway, she loved the blanket, loon, and book I brought her, and she admired the blanket while I explained what the Red Gym, the Memorial Union, Bascom Hall, and Camp Randall are. She also LOVES my boots that I brought and was astonished at how cheap they were. Who knew I was so thrifty? After all of this excitement, we chatted a bit more and then she watched the news before bed. Quite loudly, might I add. She may give Grandpa Thor a run for his money. Finally at around midnight, I went to sleep in my full sweatsuit, wool socks, and my mittens only to wake up sweating. Go figure. I suppose six blankets will do that for you.

Anyway, Chile is totally a blur to me thus far. As of yet, I’m not really sure how to feel. I can already tell my Spanish is improving every second (siento menos como una gringa y mas como una chilena), but I still feel rather uncomfortable with everything. I need to gain my footing in such a different place with a person whose rules and customs I am still unfamiliar with. I am not sure how to interact with a person so different than myself, yet I hope that we will get along well. Perhaps it’s the optimist in me, but I have a good feeling about Chile. However, I am definitely going to need more time to adjust to everything because it feels like it is passing by so fast. Luckily, time is something I have plenty of.