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/
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