Week 3 in Chile

Hey Everyone! I've been having an amazing time in Chile thus far, meeting so many cool people and doing so many interesting things. Immersing yourself in a new culture is quite difficult though and there have been sometimes when I wished I could just go home. Of course, leaving would defeat the purpose of my trip here to Chile, and I just need to remind myself that this is all a learning experience. I've only been here a little over two weeks and I already feel like I've learned so much. Anyhow, here's how my week went.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Today was my sixth day at Ecela, and the start of my final week there as well.  Because of how the school is set up, you are able to start any week of the year and take classes for one week or for as long as you want. So since it was a Monday, I had some new people in my class - Carol from Brazil, Amanda from the USA, and Olivia from the USA. The topic of this week's class was Problems in Latin America. For my morning class from 9-10:40, I had the same teacher as last week, Roxana. For the second class from 11:00-12:40, I had a new teacher named Gisele. There were some new people in that class as well - Olivia and Carol from my first class and Jenise from the USA. After classes ended, I was interviewed by a student named Valentina who is from Austria for her radio show. She is in Santiago for the summer interning for a radio company where she has a show and also writes some articles. Her show was all about how students from all of the world - namely Ecela students - love being in Chile and why they are here. After that, Juliette and I went on a lunch and shopping date to Parque Aranuco, which is a humongous mall and park. Chilean's take their shopping very seriously and consequently there are several upscale malls in the city, and one that specializes solely in upscale sporting goods. After the mall, I headed home for dinner and the night.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Today was my seventh day at Ecela. Today was no ordinary day though because my morning teacher had to leave due to a family emergency, so the school was down one teacher for the day. After a series of phone calls, a new teacher for the day was found for my class. His name was Juan Francisco and he's the director of Ecela. He led a very interesting class where we discussed the history of Chile and how the Pinochet dictatorship still has repercussions in Chile today, especially in terms of how Chile has developed. After class, a bunch of us headed to a cheap sushi place up the block from school with some of the new students from Ecela. The lunch group was comprised of Lindsey from the USA, (but she spent the past 2 years in Venezuela), Jamie from the USA, Laura from the USA, Sonya from Switzerland, and some old friends - Jess, Olivia, Juliette, and Nicole. After lunch, I head home for the night. I was able to Skype my uncle and grandparents as well. It was so great to talk to them. I love how technology makes it so easy to communicate with family and friends back home.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Today was my eighth day at Ecela, but unfortunately I was only able to go a half day because I had a meeting at work at 11am to sign my contract. Even so, I probably could have gone to class because Ramon, another new hire, and I had to wait for 2 hours before Guillermo from HR came and told us that the contracts weren't ready yet and that he was terribly sorry. So Guillermo took us out for lunch to El Corral, a burger joint nearby, and showed us around the neighborhood. After lunch, our contracts were finally ready to be signed. After we signed the contracts, I head home. Even so, our contracts were only the first steps in the process of getting our work permits. Thursday morning were to meet at 11:30 am at the Extranjería or the Foreign Ministry/immigration office in order to apply for our work permits. After that mission, I went home for a bit and then came back into town to go to an event with Ecela. We went to a salsa club for salsa lessons! It was super fun, but I am super uncoordinated and pretty bad. After that, a few of us headed to Bellavista, which is a neighborhood of Santiago that is full of clubs, bars, and pubs and seems to be the center of nightlife here. We stumbled upon an Irish pub with a karaoke night and decided that that was our spot for the night. After a group rendition of "Barbie Girl" by Aqua, I headed home.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Today was my ninth and second to last day at Ecela, and unfortunately I could only go for a half day again because I had to meet the HR people from work at the Extranjería to apply for my work permit. We met there at 11:30 and waited in line for about an hour until it was our turn. It was a much quicker process than I thought it would be, albeit it was rather disorganized. Things aren't the most efficient in Chile, but then again, it is a developing country. Like for example, you have to take a number for almost any sort of line, ranging from the Extranjería to the pharmacy check out to Entel, the cell phone store. Anyhow, the work permit takes a few days to process so I will have to come back Friday or Monday morning to pick up my work permit so that I can start working. 9th day at Ecela, but only went half day again. After, I headed home to help out with watching the kids, but shortly headed back out to the city for a BBQ at Los Buenos Muchachos with other students from Ecela. We had quite a feast at the restaurant, from steak to chorizo to chicken and wine and pisco and dessert. On top of the lovely dinner, there was a cultural show with music and dancing from all over the world as well as audience participations and a dance party turned Zumba work out at the end.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Today was my last day at Ecela. Sad face. But fortunately, I will be in Santiago until the middle of December and many of my friends are here until the end of the summer or until my study abroad program starts in late July. It was a good last day especially because I really enjoy the conversation days and Fridays are always all conversation. After class, I ran some errands and then went home. It was a very hectic afternoon for my host family because they are in the process of moving to an apartment in the city. They are more city people than suburb people, but they live in the suburbs. And on top of that, it's a really far out suburb and it takes almost an hour to get into Providencia. After helping out, I once again headed back into the city to meet up with my friends for yet another BBQ. From what I can gather, Chileans really like their BBQ and of course, they really like their meat. The BBQ was held at a student's hostal near to the school and also near to Bellavista, the nightlife area. So after the BBQ ended, we all headed to a club in Bellavista for the night. It was a super fun time! Santiago has a great nightlife scene and I've had so much fun here thus far.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Today was a very stressful and hectic day. After a lot of thinking and talking with my parents, I decided that it would be best for me to move closer into the city and out of the suburbs. Besides my family was doing the same thing, but didn't have room for me in their new apartment. So I spent the greater part of the day packing my bags and booking a hotel for the week in the city. The week will hopefully give me enough time to figure out a new housing situation. Worst comes to worse, I can stay in the hotel. It has a kitchen with a stove, oven, fridge, and microwave, so I actually could live here. It's also in a great location. It's a 10 minute walk from the metro and 3 blocks from a grocery store and a 20 minute walk to the Bellavista area. It's surrounded by great restaurants, parks and cultural things as well.

I had my friend Kris from the USA, who is working in Santiago for the summer and who also happens to be one of my boyfriend's best friends from high school, meet me at the hotel to help me unpack and get situated. It was also good to see a familiar and friendly face after a stressful and hectic morning. After I finished unpacking, we walked around and explored the neighborhood and stumbled upon a Colombian restaurant for dinner. We had a delicious dinner, and then went grocery shopping to help me get set up and ready for the week. Unfortunately, I do not have pots or pans in my kitchen, so my food options for the week are rather limited, especially because there are not a lot of microwave dinner options like in the United States. After grocery shopping, we decided to keep walking around and just hanging out. Kris is a really nice guy and I am glad that I have been able to become friends with him these past few weeks. He's definitely been a great person to have in my corner in Santiago.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

I had a great first night in the hotel. It's a great set up like I said and a great location. The bed is also super comfortable, so yay! I spent most of the day in the room, Skyping my parents and friends and beginning to search for new housing arrangements. It turns out that the office of my study abroad program is on the same street that I live on, so I am going to stop by there tomorrow to ask them for advice. Hopefully I can figure out something. Fortunately, I already have a few leads.


It was a crazy, stressful, and super fun last week at Ecela. I mad some tough decisions such as moving to the city, but in the end, I know I will be happier here. I start work tomorrow morning and am really looking to my first day at the office. I'll let you know how everything goes next week!

Best,
Lesley

P.S. Photos are on my Facebook page again.