What happens when gringos invade Iquique...

Wow, so it has been quite a while since I last updated. Plenty has happened in the last two weeks, and it’s definitely more than I can recall in one blog post. Between going to a bar with friends to watch La Catolica defeat O’Higgins, celebrating American Max’s birthday at a Jamaican reggae bar, and Chilean Max’s goodbye at a new friend’s house, sampling the deliciously cheap microbrews at a pub called HBH (a couple of times in one week), eating lunch with Chilean Max and his dad at their house, meeting up with Nona, Tess, Brita, and Katie to eat amazing pizza and desserts at a lovely Italian restaurant called Tiramisu, and otherwise getting into shenanigans all around town, it’s amazing how fast time flies. Not to mention, there is that whole school thing. School has basically become a giant question mark to me. I keep reading and doing my assignments as usual, but after four weeks of class I still feel as uncertain as ever about my academic future. Last week there was a national strike for two days where I didn’t go to a single class, since they were all canceled, and then on Friday the students took over the San Joaquin campus and attempted to prevent anyone from entering. Thankfully I was in Iquique for that, and by the time I got back it was all resolved. Still it serves as another reminder (besides the persistent lack of Chileans in my classes) that the fight for free education is still going on and the movement is as strong and angry as ever. At this point, I honestly just want a grade to have a grade. I feel like I am learning considerably more from living life than I do in any of my classes. They almost detract from my education. I know that may make my parents cringe, but let’s face it, it’s the truth.

This weekend I had the opportunity to go with my CIEE group on a trip to Iquique, which is a town in the northern desert region of the country. The trip was paid for as part of the program fee, so all of the gringos were there (aka a group of about 30 of us). We flew out of the Santiago airport on Thursday afternoon, after being transported from the metro stop across from my house (win!), and two and a half hours later we arrived safely in Iquique. Once we got there, we selected our roommates (I shared a room with Katie and Nona who had already proven to be excellent from our trip to La Serena), checked into our hotel, and headed off to dinner. Dinner was at a restaurant that served Aymara cuisine. The Aymaras are an indigenous group native to Northern Chile as well as Peru and Bolivia. I already knew a little bit about them from a phonetics project I did on Bolivia, but I learned a whole lot more about their culture during the course of the trip. The main course of the night was fish, which I gobbled up despite the fact that it isn’t usually my favorite food. While there was talk of going out after dinner, we ended up staying in and basically having a party in the hotel room. Crazy gringo shenanigans complete with lots of laughs and ridiculous photos ensued.

The next morning we awoke bright and early to head to a hospital after breakfast. Turns out the reason we were going to a hospital as part of our tour was to learn about a program started by midwives in Iquique that combines modern medicine with traditional Aymara rituals to help make giving birth both safe and comfortable for women in the surrounding communities. The head midwife gave a presentation on how the program was started and what it entails. For example, Aymara women prefer to give birth sitting rather than lying down, so they have a special birthing stool they use in the hospital to facilitate this. They also like to be incredibly warm, so the rooms have lots of blankets and a very strong heater. Interesting. Anyway, the presentation included a few laughs when a couple people in our group (including our newest edition from Wisconsin, Ian) had to demonstrate. Pictures to follow. After the birthing demonstration we wasted no time heading to a huge cemetery that is home to a variety of famous soldiers from the War of the Pacific between Chile and Peru, and then to a museum in an old house across town. It was all relatively interesting, but to be completely honest, it’s difficult to pay attention when someone rambles at you in a different language for two hours. I mostly looked around and vowed to look up the key names on Wikipedia when I could concentrate better. After lunch we took a boat tour of the ocean where we saw a few historic battle sights, and more importantly (in my opinion) some adorable harbor seals basking on buoys. Precious. I really liked just being on the Ocean and if I could have designed the trip, I would have spent a heck of a lot more time there than trying to jam a million different cultural activities into three days. Sigh. After we got back to land we went to an area school to help paint a fence and a railing in their courtyard. Except we never finished painting but whatever. I guess we got them off to a good start? Anyway, the students there also performed a traditional indigenous dance for us, and then tried to teach us a few moves. They were awesome, us gringos notsomuch. Still it was one of the more entertaining parts of the day, and watching other gringas dance with the middle school Chilean boys was hilarious. However, the painting and dancing had put us behind schedule, so we began our talk with an expert on Aymara culture about an hour later than anticipated. This meant that by the time she started speaking, we were supposed to be headed to dinner. Yeah… not good. I wish they had done a better job planning the activities/ keeping us on schedule, because I could hardly focus on what she was staying since I was so famished. I would have really liked to hear more from her at a different time though. Still I managed to retain a couple of details before we were finally released for dinner at 10 pm. Yeah, that’s right, parents. We ate dinner after you probably went to bed. Ugh.

The next day was another long day of touring around the area. We started by visiting a couple of different sodium nitrate mines aka basically wandering around looking at some old buildings in the desert. Then we headed out into the middle of nowhere to see some petroglyphs (thanks for giving me the English term, Nona) in the midst of the salt flats. While the carvings were pretty cool, they almost seemed fake since you would imagine that something so old, gigantic, and vast would have been long destroyed by the sand and the wind. Still it was fun to walk around and look at them as well as venture into the expanse of nothingness that is the salt flats. You really can’t hear anything except the salt crackling in the sun. Plus, we wandered over to this super cool oasis where one of the guys in my group briefly meditated. I mostly just took in the surroundings. After the salt flats, we headed out for lunch where we annihilated the food since once again we were behind schedule and starving. This restaurant also offered amazing fresh mango-lemonade. Yum. After lunch we had the option of walking around and looking at the markets or swimming around in the hot springs. I chose the hot springs. SO WORTH IT. Ugh, it was so nice and refreshing (they were more tepid than hot) on a sunny desert day. I wish we could have stayed there for hours and hours, but once again we were rushed along after only a half an hour in the springs to go to a nearby fruit orchard. Still I had an amazing time in the springs and would definitely go back.  Later that day we drank delicious juice from the orchard and stopped in a town having a traditional Chilean religious festival. However, we were all beat by 8 pm and very happy to head back to the hotel to kick back and relax. That night a lot of people hit the bars in town, but chilling in the hotel in sweatpants and talking with American Max was totally fine with me. Probably better actually since I woke up at 10:30 feeling ready to run around town during our free (!!!!) morning. It was amazing. I ran all the way down the boardwalk and even dipped my hand in the ocean. Nothing beats a clear view of the Pacific five minutes from where you are staying. Plus I was able to watch the start of some sort of a race, which was pretty cool. I wish I had known about it before. I would have totally signed up. The run was probably one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. Definitely heading back to the ocean a couple times before I go back to the United States since I think my lack of proximity to it at home draws me to it when I am here. In any event, I finally ran back to the hotel, showered, and checked out before lunch. Lunch was AMAZING. We went to a gorgeous Spanish restaurant that served us fresh seafood alfredo. Yum. Then we basically took in a bunch of different sights for the rest of the afternoon and evening (our flight was delayed two hours) before flying out of Iquique at 8 pm. On the whole, it was a pretty good trip, but I appreciate being back in Santiago. However, on cool days like today, I am definitely missing the desert heat.

Since I only have one class on Monday, I slept in late this morning before heading to class at 1:15. Class went on as planned (thank God, the incapacitating strike from last week did not continue into this week), and I finally met with my tandem partner this afternoon! After three weeks of mismatched schedules, I got to sit down and chat with him. His name is Pancho, he studies engineering (don’t all of my friends here?), and he’s in his last year of school before he starts his masters. We started talking in Spanish but then switched to English half way through to give us both a chance to practice. He seems nice, so I think meeting with him on a weekly basis should be good.

Other than that, I am going to visit Jo in Vina this weekend, which makes me happier than words can describe! I can’t wait to get to know the town and meet her friends and above all, CATCH UP WITH HER. So happy. Plus, I have exploring and jersey buying with Max on Thursday and lunch with Nona, Tess, Katie, and Brita on Friday to look forward to on Friday afternoon. And maybe even a little soccer playing on Friday evening? We’ll have to see. I’m also trying to plan a vacation to Copiapo (another desert city) because there is an amazing volcano nearby as well as the most beautiful beach in the country. I’ll post pictures, so you can all ooo and ahhh over what I will (hopefully) be seeing. I also found out that Chilean Max had lunch with Mario in Madison today, and that made me super happy. I’m glad that he is doing well and that my friends are taking care of him. Anyway, that’s all for now. I’ll post pictures soon. 

Pics from August

Pictures from August thus far.

Photos from La Serena y Vicuna

As promised, the photos from La Serena and Vicuna. Enjoy! I'll also have photos from this month so far up shortly.

Gooooool

Alright so I have a lot to catch you all up on. Time does fly here, and now that classes have really started to pick up (you mean I actually came here to go to school?) I am busier than ever. I guess I’ll rewind to Thursday. On Thursday night I went out with Chilean Max, my new Chilean posse, Gonzalo and Matias, American Max, and a few other Chilean friends to this really chill brewpub called HBH. It was highly entertaining, and I got to meet some new people who were all super cool. We all then departed to a gathering for gringos where we could dance and ostensibly meet more people from around the world who are also studying at La Catolica. It was more fun than I expected, but I mostly hung out with Chilean Max, Gonzalo, and another girl from the United States named Beth who I knew from the previous gathering and from sushi.

After a night of revelry I was incredibly tired when I got home. Before I knew it, I woke up to my host mom yelling at me. Turns out I had a slept through my alarm and six phone calls (not sure how this is possible, even with earplugs), and it was 12:45. Since my bus was supposed to leave for La Serena at 1:15, and I am NEVER late to anything I had a miniature panic attack. But my host mom, being the saint that she is, kept me from having a breakdown, and I quickly changed my clothes and ran for the door. Luckily, I am super type A, so I had laid out an outfit and packed my bags the night before (thank you, Mom for instilling this in me). We managed to make it to the bus stop in 20 minutes even though it usually takes 25, and I sprinted onto the bus about two minutes before it departed from Santiago after hugging Maria Elena goodbye and thanking her for everything. Although I hadn’t showered, eaten, brushed my teeth, or even combed my hair, I was happy to be seated next to my friends Katie and Tess on our way to La Serena. And they were happy to see that I wasn’t, in fact, dead.

The bus ride took about 7 hours, so we reached La Serena a little after 8 pm. I was famished by the time we got there, but first we wanted to drop our bags of at our hostel. Since it was my first time in a hostel I didn’t know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. The hostel we stayed at was very clean, and we were upgraded to two private rooms instead of one large dorm. It was run by a few people in their twenties and painted with murals throughout. The hostel also had a computer with internet and provided a free breakfast. All for around $20 per night! Amazing. After we settled into our room and got the tour, we found a place to grab a quick and relatively tasty bite to eat and returned to the hostel. It was Pisco Sour night there, so we climbed up to the outdoor patio to socialize with the workers and the other inhabitants. It turns out that there was a group of 13 pilots-to-be staying in the hostel that night as well, and they were all super chill. Most of them were chileans but I ended up chatting with a Brazilian named William who was friendly and spoke four languages (Spanish, Portuguese, English, and German). Tess, Katie, Brita, and Nona (the latter two finally joined us at around midnight since they had a class Friday afternoon) talked to a guy named Nico, who suggested we all get together sometime in Santiago, since we are all studying there. I think we are going to make that happen. Anyway, the conversation was great, but the Pisco sours may have been even better since the guy who made them juiced the lemons himself. By far the best drinks I’ve had, and they were incredibly cheap too. I couldn’t help but rave to him about them. I also talked to a couple studying law at La Universidad de Chile and a couple of Americans who had just graduated from the University of South Dakota (their Spanish made me feel a lot better about mine). By around 2:30 we were ready to hit the hay since we had to get up early the next morning to do some exploring.

The weather in La Serena was splendid the next day, and I loved walking around town. First, we went to the Japanese gardens in town, which were beautiful despite it being winter. I’ll include pictures of all of this, so you all get a better idea. We then ended up strolling down the shoreline of the ocean, and stopping at a restaurant that was basically someone’s kitchen for a cheap and delicious lunch. It cost somewhere around $4 for a salad, rice, and chicken. Yum. After lunch, we hiked around the area and snapped more photos of the gorgeous views. We also stopped at an artisanal market called La Recova to do some shopping. All in all, it was a fun and relaxing day with plenty of exercise built in to the adventure. Needless to say, we all passed out on hour bus ride from La Serena to Vicuna (except Brita and Tess who watched the sunset). We then walked to our next hostel in Vicuna. This one was very nice as well but a lot more formal. Again it only cost around $20 a night for two private rooms, which is incredible. The woman who owns the hostel reminded me a lot of my host mom, and she was so friendly to all of us foreigners. After settling in for a second time, we picked up some dinner at a café in town and chose to spend the night in talking, drinking wine, and eating chocolate. Very relaxing and much needed after doing so much walking around during the day.

The next morning we woke up early again and enjoyed another free breakfast (though I was bummed to find out that this hostel didn’t have computer), and then headed out for more exploring in Vicuna. We started our day at the Gabriela Mistral museum where we learned more about the history of the Nobel Prize winning Chilean poet. Her life was very interesting, and it surprised me how little I had heard about her before. After the museum we stopped in some more artisanal shops around town and went to confirm our observatory tour for that night. Mostly I just enjoyed basking in the sun, since it’s so rare that I feel warm here. Another lunch passed by, and afterwards we trekked out to Planta Capel. Capel is the most popular brand of Pisco in Chile, and the plant happens to be located in Vicuna, so of course, we had to go see how it was made. The factory tour only lasted about 30 minutes, but I got to learn more about the fermentation process and the different types of Pisco available in Chile.  For example, did you know there are four different categories of Pisco, and that they are differentiated by their proof? We also had a few laughs along the way, since a stray dog accompanied us on the entire tour. For some reason the same dog had followed us all of the way from the center of town, and even though we hadn’t fed it a morsel. Strange. Anyway, the tour ended with a pisco tasting, and I sampled the Mango Pisco Colada. It was delicious and refreshing. We were all loving the mango, so we bought a bottle of mango sour to split that night. It also came with a free glass, which I paid a little extra to be able to keep. Definitely worth it. When we returned from the tour, we were disappointed to find out that our observatory for that night had been canceled since it was too foggy out. Still it was another pleasant night in with the girls, and I really liked getting to know them all better through the course of the trip.

Unfortunately, we had to return to La Serena the next day but not until after we hiked up a giant hill on the edge of town. It was a lovely two-hour hike and what I needed to stretch my legs before the hour bus ride back to La Serena and then the seven-hour bus ride back to Vicuna. Getting to the bus terminal less eventful than my trip into town (thankfully), and we arrived with plenty of time to spare. The bus ride was MUCH more painful though as I was seated directly across from the bathroom for all seven hours. It felt as though I was sitting in a Porto potty, and the stench was unbearable. Therefore by the time the seven hours were through I was pretty cranky, even more so when I realized that in my rush to escape from the bus my water bottle fell out. Very sad indeed. But I was happy to get home, shower, eat, and catch up on my emails in peace. All in all, it was a great weekend and a nice respite from the craziness of Santiago. Tess, Brita, Katie, and Nona deserve a shoutout for planning everything and being great to travel with. Definitely hoping to take another trip with them again soon. Like I said, I will work on posting pictures ASAP.

Today it was back to the grind, and I actually enjoyed both of my classes of the day. Not as boring or self-explanatory as some of the lectures in the past. Plus, I got to have lunch with my Chilean friend, Felipe and catch up with him. He is pretty awesome, and I like discussing linguistics (among other things, of course) with him, since he is studying English linguistics. Interesting to compare our experiences. I think we might get lunch again next week, which would be awesome. Clearly, whoever said I would have to work to make friends who aren’t foreigners, never met Chileans. I have met some amazing people already. Everyone is super nice here, though I must say, in my experience, the women are shyer than the men.

After a nice easy half hour run, I got ready for my first soccer game here. Gonzalo picked me up along with Matias, and we all headed to the stadium to watch La Catolica take on a Uruguayan team called Bella Vista. In Chile, the three main teams are La Catolica, La Chile, and Colo Colo. La Catolica has the smallest fanbase of the three, La Chile is somewhere in the middle, and Colo Colo is basically the Chilean version of the Yankees.  Still it made sense to me to be a La Catolica fan since it is related to my university, and Gonzalo offered to take me to a game. The stadium was only about half full since the weather was cold and overcast, but I still had an awesome time. La Catolica won 3-0, and it didn’t rain a single drop. Plus, Gonzalo is becoming a really good friend of mine here, and I liked hanging out with him and Matias a lot. I also enjoyed getting into the spirit of the game and chanting with the Chileans even though I had no clue what they were saying 95 percent of the time. Note to self: look up cheers. I’m definitely going to get to know the players better too, because I anticipate going to more game in the future. Gonzalo even bought me a La Catolica sticker, and I kept the program for future reference. On the way back from the game we discussed soccer and music and agreed on a music exchange since he obviously knows more Spanish songs than I do. Perfect for me as a lover of reggaeton and all things Chilean, and perfect for him as a lover of popular American music. In fact, I am listening to one of the songs right now and loving it.

Basically, the last few days have been amazing. Not to jinx it but I am seriously starting to thrive here. Thanks parents for this wonderful experience. Too bad for you, I may never come back. 

Running away

Warning: this blog post is going to be a rant. Because I am upset. Today we found out that PUC may be going on strike indefinitely following a one-day strike yesterday. PUC has decided to show their solidarity with the public system on the proposed education reform, and the students have already closed down Campus Oriente for the time being in protest. What does that mean for me? Well despite the reassurances of the authorities that we won’t need to be sent home (thank God), it does mean limited class availability and worst of all, no chileans in my classes. Since taking classes with Chileans was one of the things I was looking forward to most about coming here, finding that out was devastating to me. Especially since part of the reason I chose to go to PUC was the stability. I figured that with a private school, I could avoid all of the craziness going on in Chile right now. However, no such luck. And while I find the objectives of the student body admirable, I wonder sometimes if it is worth what they are costing everyone. Thousands of dollars in damages from the fires, students who will lose a year of class and whose scholarships won’t extend another year, exchange students who simply want a Chilean education. However, I guess the real person I should be angry at is Pinera and his government. You’d think that thousands of students marching, high schoolers not attending class, ungodly low approval ratings, and violent riots in the streets would be enough to motivate him to rectify the situation. Then again the Chilean citizens are the ones who elected him in the first place so…

In any event, I can’t cross that bridge until I get there. For now, I am going to classes as usual, and all of my professors have been showing up to teach in spite of the supposed strike. On the whole, my classes are just okay. I’m finally starting to get settled into a routine, but that means plenty of homework and sitting through some seriously monotonous lectures (why is it that in the first week, all professors feel the need to tell you a million things you already know?). Mostly I’ve been enjoying going to school for the social benefits. Eating lunch with friends in the sun is one of life’s greatest simple pleasures. I also got my student ID the other day, so I can start bulking up in the weight room as soon as I want to. That is, of course, if the weight room attendants don’t go on strike as well. Ugh.

Speaking of fitness, I have started running regularly again which makes me very happy. The weather here has been beautiful this week, so it’s hard not to be motivated to do something. I like to run on a particular loop close to my house that has a gorgeous view of the mountains for about a half mile. Honestly, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go back to running in cold wintery Madison. It’ll definitely be a serious withdrawal.

On a social front, I went to a gathering for foreign students on Friday, and ran into Max, the Chilean studying at Madison for the next year, at the party. He and I ended up having an hour and a half long conversation along with his friend Gonzalo and a girl named Beth, who is from Minnesota but goes to Marquette. We all decided to get dinner on Sunday, and I must say I enjoyed chatting about the city and about Minnesota over some delicious sushi. Yum. Tomorrow, I am meeting up with Max and Gonzalo again for lunch, and I’m hoping Gonzalo can give me the scoop on the schedule of the La Catolica soccer games because I would love to go to at least a couple while I am here. I am going into sports fan withdrawal being away from Badger football. However, if he doesn’t watch it, I may be converted to Universidad de Chile’s team by another Max. We’ll have to see. Tomorrow night is another gathering for foreign students, so I think I’ll go to that and try to meet more fun extranjeros to sympathize with me over the state of this strike.

Otherwise, I am looking forward to my first excursion this weekend. My friends Brita, Tess, Nona, and Katie and I have decided to spend the long weekend in the northern dessert region of La Serena and Vicuña. It’s a seven hour bus ride up there, but it should be worth it to tour a Pisco factory, hike around the Valley, and do some amazing stargazing at a famous observatory. I’m pretty excited. We already have our hostels booked (my first time) and our tickets purchased, so all I have left to do now is pack. I’ll let you all know how it goes. And then next weekend it is off to Viña del Mar to welcome the long-awaited Jo Holub. Words cannot describe how excited I am for that.  

I think it also needs to be said that as I was contemplating this whole strike situation today and freaking out about the possibility of being sent back to the United States, it occurred to me how much I love it here. Santiago has already become my home, and I'm not ready to leave it yet. Even though I have already been here a month, the time has truly flown by, and I can tell I am going to miss it so much. Chile, you really have stolen my heart.

Protests and PUC

Okay, so the last couple of days have been rather crazy for me. Figuring out my class schedule has been confusing enough, but add a brand new campus to explore, enrollment to take care of, homework to do, advising meetings to attend, and an essay to write, and you have a rather busy Caryn. However, I think I am finally getting things figured out.

Yesterday, I finally decided on my class schedule for the semester. After visiting six classes (even though the professor never showed up to one of them), I have decided to take a class on the Latin American short story, a class on Latin American culture and society, a survey class called Great Authors that may or may not count for Spanish credit (hey, the professor is awesome and there are barely any gringos in the class, so I am doing it anyway), and a class through CIEE about the linguistics of Chile. I think it should be a pretty good schedule-- challenging but not impossible. Plus, it is just a relief to be done deciding. To be honest, I went with my gut for the most part. If a class or a professor seemed boring, I dropped it from the list. I firmly believe that a professor can make or break a class, and I really want to enjoy my time here. I don’t want a bad professor to ruin that for me.

Other than that, I have been exploring the campus during the day. Mostly I just walk around to get a feel for things. I really enjoy getting purposefully lost. So far I have found a couple of good lunch places, some gorgeous study spots, a computer lab with tons of windows, and the schedule for the weight room! The last one was sort of an interesting experience. I think the guy working at the gym thought I was lost as I was reading the schedule, but I calmly explained to him that I simply wanted to see when the room was open and then confirmed with him that it is free for students. It looks like I will be working out Tuesdays and Thursdays after class since those are practically the only times that there isn’t something scheduled. Now if only my student ID would come, so I can get started.

I also met a super nice Chilean student in the computer lab yesterday. His name is Daniel, and he is a civil engineering student at the PUC. We started talking because he asked me how to use the at-symbol on the computer (silly Spanish keyboards), but of course, I had no idea and then he heard my accent and realized I’m a foreigner. We talked for about fifteen minutes until I had to go to class. I told him I would find him on facebook, but unfortunately there are quite a few Daniel Fuentes. Oh well. Currently I’m still waiting to get set up with a tandem partner, and I am starting to get nervous since one of the other girls in my program already has hers. I want to know who mine is! I guess the trick is just to be patient and to trust that I submitted my application correctly.

Other than that, the protests continue here. This morning I was riding the metro and minding my own business, when suddenly there was an announcement over the loudspeakers. I missed it because I had my headphones in, but then I smelled something kind of weird and everyone around me covered their noses and mouths. It was then that I realized it was tear gas. Though there wasn’t a lot of it in the air, it was enough to make my nose and throat burn a bit. My host mom had warned me of the protests in the center of the city this morning, but I didn’t realize the tear gas would make it all the way to the subway tunnel. Kind of scary. Still it served as an important reminder that while I am going to school, plenty of students are fighting for the right to education. It also made me proud of my right to free speech and that in the United States I can protest on the steps of the capitol without being tear-gassed or arrested. Speaking of arrested, tonight alone they have arrested over 500 students. People are currently going crazy in the city. Everywhere there are students in the streets banging on pans, and I can hear tons of cars honking outside my window. It’s madness, but I love it.

On the home front, I received a mass email on Tuesday from the head of the Legal Studies department asking if any students would be interested in being in contact with some Madison alumni who have agreed to serve as mentors. I read the bios of the eight alums and asked to be put in contact with a woman named Katie who is currently in law school at the University of California. I figured, “Why not? Maybe she has some good advice.” Within hours I had her email address, and I sent her an email about myself and asked a few questions about herself and law school. She responded with a lengthy email, and she gave me some great insight about the next steps I should take if I decide law school is for me. I think it will be incredibly helpful to have someone to talk to about these sorts of things who will give me a candid answer. It’s crazy to think that when I come back from Chile I’ll be signing up for LSAT courses. Ugh.  

There's a first time for everything

This weekend, like so many days here, was a blur. I believe I left off at the cumbia concert. Let me tell you, that was definitely quite the experience. About ten of us got together to go to the concert, and after purchasing our tickets (which only cost $4) we headed to a local bar/restaurant to relax and get some food before the show. A little over an hour later, around 12:30, we were more than ready for the main event so we headed back to the bar to see the show. I had no idea what to expect since I had never heard cumbia before, but I ended up having a great time. Granted the bar was SUPER packed by 1 am, so it quickly became suffocating and difficult to maneuver within the crowded space. Still there was so much energy in the place that it would have been difficult not to have fun. Cumbia turned out to be a mix of salsa and reggae in my estimation, and I might actually consider getting a few songs to listen to. I think it might be good running music.

The next morning I woke up later than I had anticipated, but it was okay. I ended up taking it easy pretty much all day. I plan to get more ambitious with my weekends as time goes on, but for right now, I am just enjoying relaxing and taking in the sights. Not to mention, it was a rainy day, which gave me the perfect excuse to be lazy. After lying around all day, I went out with a friend that night to a birthday party of a Chilean acquaintance. It was a good time, and I got to converse with a few Chileans as well as a Brazilian who used to live in the United States for seven years and appeared to know half of the world’s languages. He was pretty sweet. However, it was definitely a late night, and after a tumultuous night’s sleep I woke up feeling drowsy and relatively unwell. So I lazed around all day yesterday too. Oh well. The most frustrating part of the weekend is I am still trying to get together with Francisca again, though she and I apparently cannot communicate via text or phone for some reason. It sucks because she keeps complaining to me over facebook about ignoring her calls when I have DEFINITELY been answering them. Silly phone companies. Then again, I will also have to adjust to Chileans making plans at the last minute, which my host mom says is very common. This may be difficult for my type A personality to handle.

Last night at dinner, my host mom gave me a pep talk for my first day of classes. I think I must have looked as unsure as I felt, because she urged me to remain calm and to take hard classes because that’s how I would learn the most. I mostly just smiled and nodded at her while she lectured at me. Still I left the table feeling slightly less nervous for my first day of classes today.

This morning when I woke up after another night of tossing and turning (I think I definitely had some pre-new school jitters), I got my things together and decided to wear my lucky shirt. I figured the start of classes in another country was as good a reason as any to put it on. I quietly walked around the house gathering things up and generally trying not to disturb my host mom. When she finally emerged out of her room she started talking at me at a million miles a minute, which if you have ever interacted with me in the morning, you know I prefer to avoid chatting with people until I have fully woken up. However, I responded politely and tried to push down the building nervousness that I felt. Finally I left for class at 9:15 am in order to make it on time for my 10 am class.

I think it may be easier to break down my first day of class based on the lessons I learned from it. Trust me, there are more than a few.

1.     Chileans are ALWAYS late. More than half of the class showed up late to my first class of the day and another decent portion showed up late to my second class of the day. We aren’t talking just a couple minutes late either. People will still trickling in 20 minutes after the period had started. Weird.

2.     Make friends with Chilean students in the class. Although I didn’t meet anyone new in my second class of the day, my first class had a very nice guy in it, who gently told us that the class we were sitting in on was primarily for fourth year students. Oops. Needless to say, I was happy to hear any insider tips he could provide from there on out, and I am hoping to meet even more Chileans as time goes on. They all seem really friendly so far.

3.     Registering for classes is twice as difficult as registering in the United States. If I thought that classes closing and having to drop everything to be at my computer for my scheduled sign up time was irritating, that was nothing in comparison to today’s adventure. The “helpful” course guide/ info guide for foreign students did not mention the locations of the offices we needed to find in order to enroll in courses, so I was forced on a wild goose chase to try to figure out where to sign up for my classes. Once I finally managed to get to the right office on this maze of a campus, I then had to stand in line with all of the other foreigners to wait to talk to someone about enrolling. Although the lady at the front desk strongly urged us to only take the classes we want to stick with, I signed up knowing that I will most likely drop one of the classes. I decided to go with what Patricio had instructed me to do, and I figure I will deal with dropping courses when the time comes. At least this way, I am enrolled in SOMETHING.

4.     Being an exchange student is basically like being a freshman all over again except this time everyone around you has known each other since they were five years old, so it is even scarier. Oh the joys of eating lunch alone when everyone around you is chatting in a language you only semi-understand and then wandering around campus looking like an idiot because you don’t have the slightest clue where you are. It’s frustrating to have to start all over again, but since everyone seems really nice I have hopes of connecting with some of my classmates in the near future. In the meantime, I’ll just have to bring a book with me to lunch and suck it up and pull out a map when I get lost.

5.     Deciding which classes to take is trickier than I ever would have imagined. I’m trying to find a balance in my courses between challenging and impossible and between a class full of Chileans and a class full of gringos. It’s much more difficult than I thought. Turns out that taking linguistics courses abroad is basically the equivalent of committing academic suicide (little did I know), so unfortunately I’ll have to drop those from the program. However, little by little I am pulling together a decent schedule. What I am really stuck on though is deciding whether or not to take a course through CIEE. There is a course through them that actually sounds pretty of interesting, but I am afraid that taking a class with them would be a cop out. Then again, it would give me a chance to practice my Spanish on a more one-on-one basis since it would most likely be the director, myself, and one or two other students. Ugh, I’m just not sure. Advice?

6.     Even here, the professor has a tremendous impact on how you feel about a class. When I entered my class on Great Authors today, the professor was a smiling older woman who started to chat with all the students as they walked in. It was clear that plenty of people in the class were fans of hers, and she even bothered to ask us foreigners (there were only three of us in this class as opposed to at least ten in my prior one) why we had selected this class to take. Although the class seems like it may be a challenge for me, and I might have to fight to get credit for it (about five of the authors are not from Spanish speaking countries) I still want to take it because for the first time all day, I felt at ease. Afterwards I felt comfortable enough to walk up to the professor and ask her personally if she thought foreign students would be able to handle the class. Luckily, she assured me that we would and that the acting we have to do (!!!) will help improve our Spanish abilities as well. So I think I will proceed with that class despite any doubts I may have.

All in all, it was a rather trying day, but I learned a lot, and I feel better prepared for tomorrow’s classes. Plus, after posting a status of frustration at La Catolica’s crazy registration system, the guy I met who is planning on going to Madison next year reminded me that he could help me with questions too. It actually made me feel a lot better and reminded me that the Chilean students want to help us. Thank goodness. Hoping tomorrow will be a little easier and listening to happy music to make me feel better. Otherwise, I have to look over “The trickster of Seville”, “Romeo and Juliet”, and “Don Quijote” to prepare for class this week. Yay for getting back to the grind.

Oh and by the way, I would strongly recommend you check out this video. Even though most of you won’t be able to understand what the reporter is saying, the protests occurred RIGHT in front of my apartment this morning. We’re talking 30 meters from my doorstep. Unfortunately, I live on the top floor of my apartment, and it was 7 am so I slept through the whole thing. They were still cleaning up the charred remains when I walked by on my way to the metro at 9:15 though. Awesome. Go student protestors go! Just don’t light anyone on fire or get choked by the police officers.

http://www.cnnchile.com/nacional/2011/08/01/las-reacciones-a-los-bloqueos-con-barricadas-de-los-estudiantes/