Week 8 in Chile

Hello all,
This has been such a fun, exciting, and long week. My study abroad program started on Monday and I have had so much fun getting to know the people in my program as well as my new host mom! I can tell that the next 5 months are going to be amazing.

Monday, July 22, 2013

-Study abroad program starts today!!! But first I had to pack up and say good bye to Ximena and Keku, but this is not good bye at all as I am still in Santiago for 5 more months and thus plan to see them both very soon
-After saying good bye, I took a taxi with all my luggage to the orientation hotel where I was greeted by CIEE staff and other students who were already in the city, the rest of the group was en route from the airport; once they finally arrived the hotel was a little overwhelmed with 50 people trying to check in at once, so the whole process was delayed and turned into sitting around and trying to meet everyone for 2 hours; we had a nice Subway lunch though (sidenote: Subway is really big here along with a lot of over American fast food chains); After lunch we boarded a bus to La Catolica (one of three universities in Santiago that we can attend) for our first orientation meeting; it was just an overview of the program and rules kind of meeting as well as an introduction to Santiago (but I already knew most of it since I've been here for almost 8 weeks now, so glad I came down here early); after our first session ended, we walked over to Lastarria neighborhood, which is a really trendy street/area near Bellavista and Bellas Artes, for our first dinner as a group; the restaurant was really nice and it was great starting to get to know people; everyone on the program that I have met so far is really cool and interesting and passionate, just my kind of people; after dinner we all headed back to the hotel and then some of us went out exploring the surround neighborhoods (I've never really hung out around where our hotel was, so I couldn't offer any advice on where to go), so we wandered until we found a bar that seemed interesting and then everyone tried their first piscola and surely not their last; all in all, it was a great first day and I am so looking forward to the rest of the program

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

-Day 2 of orientation was just more logistically stuff such as safety and emergency plans and information about the city, such as public transportation and stuff like that (again, I already knew most of what they were talking about); but the most fun thing that happened during orientation was that we got letters from our host families and got to see on a map where they all live and what other students we live close to; after that we had a quick lunch in the courtyard of La Catolica (it's beautiful) and then everyone went to get cell phones (again this is something that I already have); After that we went back to the hotel to wait for our host families to come pick us up, but we had some time to kill so I walked around with my friend Ani and we stumbled across the Costanera Center, which is the biggest mall in Santiago and also next to the biggest building in Santiago and in South America, so we just walked around there for a bit and chatted until finding our way back to the hotel where I got to meet my host mom!
-This time I am living with yet another chilean "abuela" named Nora, what she doesn't know is that she has some very big shoes to fill; she's super nice and very friendly and speaks a little bit of English and I speak enough Spanish that we can communicate fairly well (sometimes hand gestures are needed); she lives in Santiago Centro, so completely different from where I was before which was more residential and farther out of downtown; now I am in the heart of it all, really close to so many amenities and cultural aspects of the city and I am also really close to the schools, which is super convenient; after she picked me up from the hotel, we went back to her apartment and I started getting settled in and unpacking my things; then little by little some of her friends started coming over and I soon found out that she was throwing me a little welcome to Chile party! All of her friends are so kind and gave me their phone numbers in case I ever need help or anything from them; her one friend David works at the Congreso, so he offered to give me a tour of the Ex-Congreso building here in Santiago as well as the actual building in Valpo; I will definitely be taking him up on that offer; for the little dinner party, Nora made completos, which are the chilean hot dog with mayo, tomatoes, and palta; Chileans love mayo and they love palta; As the evening went on, I shared pictures of my family and of my boyfriend James and told them that he was coming to visit in 9 days and they were really excited about that! I remember someone mentioning that we should have a barbecue for him when he comes to visit; all in all, I am really happy with where I am staying and with all the people that I am meeting and I am looking forward to a phenomenal semester here in Chile

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

-Getting to orientation on time this morning was a struggle; first the hot water heater for the house called the thermos; Chileans do not have central heating or hot water; electricity is very expensive, so most use gas heaters; gas heaters are not allowed in my apartment so Nora has a thermos (80L water heater) that is on a timer, so there is only hot water somtimes
-Day 3 of orientation; lectures on how to register for classes and the various universities; lectures and spanish language agreement; lectures on living in the city
-Lunch in Lastarria again at La Junta
-Spanish language workshop and learning the differences between various dialects and how different chilean spanish is compared to the rest of the world; learned lots of chilean slang
-Home for dinner and then hung out until my friend Biz invited a few of us (Dom, Zac, Ani, Elaina, Diana and me) to her house to pregame before going to Miercoles Po; her host brother's friend picked us up at the metro and then we hung out with him and his friends at their house before heading out
-Miercoles Po with everyone at Club Miel; Miercoles Po is a party for foreigners that happens every Wednesday; there are a lot of international students in Santiago, and the city is very welcoming of the students and thus have lots of events and parties for them to get acquainted with the city and to make friends with Chileans and other international students

Thursday, July 25, 2013

-Met at CIEE office to head to U Chile for orientation and class registration; I can't take classes at U Chile because of Tufts in Chile, so it was pointless for me to go to that session, but still interesting to see the building and hear what they had to say; afterwards we had lunch in a park and walked around the city and chilled in another park in Providencia for a while; starting to get close with people even though its only been 4 days since we all met
-Met back up at CIEE office to head to the Universidad Diego Portales orientation, where they explained the classes we can take at the Social Sciences Faculdad (the only faculdad we are allowed to attend at this school); they then gave us a tour of the library and of the gym, both of which are beautiful and very modern
-Afterwards walked around the neighborhood with Tom from Brown, John from UMich, Andy from Seattle U, Elaina from Elon and Diana from Denison; stumbled upon a super Chilean bar where we had a few beers and a chorrillana, which is the Chilean version of Yours Truly's Not-So Fries, they are friends with hot dogs, onions, beef, and friend eggs on top; after that we all took the metro and head home in our respective directions

Friday, July 26, 2013

-Didn't really do anything all morning because I am starting to get sick (classic Lesley) but Nora and Margarita (the nana) made me casuelo de pollo, which is a typical Chilean soup. After that I met up with the group at the San Joaquin campus of La Catolica, which is the social sciences campus. Since schools in Santiago are so big, they have different departments or faculdades spread out all over the city; at La Catolica we had to take a diagnostic spanish test to see if we need to take the Advanced Spanish class that CIEE offers to get more Spanish practice if you need it
-after that I headed home and hung out with Nora for a bit until I met my friends at the metro near my house to head to La Piojera again so everyone could try their first terremoto! At the bar, we all made a lot of new Chilean friends and one from El Salvador and one from Peru. I love meeting new people and practicing my spanish and La piojera is the perfect place to do both of those things
-After La Piojera, we all took the bus to some club that my friend's host brother wanted to go to in Nunoa; it was so much fun! at the bar I made some Chilean friends too!

Saturday, July 27, 2013

-Slept in pretty late and then met up with some friends from CIEE at Plaza de Armas to go thrift shopping on Bandera street; there were lots of stores, but it's not really my scene; my friends found a lot of clothes that they liked so that was good; after shopping we wandered around Plaza de Armas and watched all of the really cool street performers; then we ran into another friend from the program and went to grab some snacks and drinks at a restaurant nearby; after that we all went our separate ways home
-Later that night about 15 of us met up at Plaza Italia to head to Bellavista for a party for international students at a local club; we started out the night on a rooftop patio overlooking the upscale Patio Bellavista, then we found a local restaurant where we could eat some chorilliana, which is a delicious typical Chilean snack; after that we finally met up with the rest of our friends and headed to the club for a flag themed party with lots of international students

Sunday, July 28, 2013

-Slept in pretty late again and then went to the grocery store with Nora to get some snacks; snacking is not really a big thing here in Chile, so she was a little confused about what I wanted to get and why; once we got back from the store we had a really nice lunch of fish and rice and vegetables
-Now we are heading to mass at her church, Iglesia San Francisco, which is the oldest church in the city; it's over 500 years old, but it needs some repairs from what I can tell; it was a very beautiful mass, but all in spanish of course, so difficult to follow; on the way there Nora taught me how to say the Our Father in spanish; we also got there early and she had a priest say a prayer over us and he said something along the lines that he hopes nora will be like my own mother while I am here in Chile; Chile is a very catholic country and mostly everyone that I have met goes to mass on Sundays and says that religion is very important to them

Other interesting things from the week: Nora is a really cool lady and I really like living with her. She always says "Hasta la vista baby!" when I leave. She's pretty funny. She told me that she started hosting people because after her husband passed away she wanted to adopt a little girl, but her two 30 year old sons were like no way, so through a bunch of different friends she was put in contact with CIEE and started hosting girls.  I am the 4th girl she has hosted so far. She also told me that she chose me to stay with her because I remind her of her sons who both have light eyes and also because she likes that I am catholic.

Anyhow, that's all for now! Looking forward to the next week in Santiago because classes start and James comes to visit!!!

Besos,
Lesley