I posted a few pictures! They’re nothing special, really. Just a few shots from my first few days here. Mostly of the welcome breakfast we had. I’m a bit shy to be snapping photos of everything…ya know? It doesn’t help me blend in at all. I’m sure when my dad comes down the internet will be flooded with pictures…so be patient. 
whee!
lovin´ it
I don´t know if my time stamp has straightened out yet but it´s about 5:45 pm on Monday, Feb 26.
Where to begin? I had uneventful flights to Santiago. There was rain in Atlanta so my flight was an hour late to Santiago but Cristian and Angelica waited for me at the airport and we made it to mtg on time. C&A are a newly married couple who live in Santiago, relatively close to the airport and they have a car. Some cute, blue foreign car…I didn´t recognize the maker.
I do not remember any names (except for Ely) of the friends but they are SO SO SO warm and friendly. Everyone greets everyone with a hug, and they press their cheek to yours and kiss your lower jaw, or just make a smacking noise near your ear. Someone´s nephew, I guess he´s about 10, even kissed me in goodbye, or “ciao” as they say here. No one spoke English but I prayed in English and gave my testimony in Spanish, or tried to anyway. After meeting, C&A took me to the bus station and put me on a bus for Viña and that was fine. It gave me a chance to people watch and look at the passing scenery. Angela´s daughter, Cecilia, and Cecilia´s son, Gregorio met me at the bus station and we took a taxi to Angela´s apt.
Chileans are not at all what I was expecting. They are much more prosperous, much more glamorous and much more ´American´ than I had thought. I haven´t seen a McDonald´s but Angela (I call her mamí) said that younger Chileans are frequently more obese because of poor eating habits. Most everyone is ´muy de moda´or very fashionable. Big sunglasses from Chanel are very common and so is a tank top with a sweater tied around one´s shoulders, very East Coast, I think. Not so many guachos, like in the States, but a few. There are gorgeous Chileans; portly; ugly; dirty, homeless-looking Chileans; punky; preppy; business people; chubby maternal types; rugged hiking guys with longish hair…etc. Viña is packed right now because there´s an international music festival going on and it´s summer time so there are lots of tourists. To me, they all look the same so in a couple of weeks I´ll see a more accurate picture of Viña. The Hotel O´Higgens is down the street and evidently there are some music stars staying there so the sidewalk is filled with people, mostly young teenagers, waiting to catch a glimpse of some celebrity in the window.
Libertad is the name of the main cross street. I live on 6 Norte and catch the bus on Libertad. It´s a big, tree-lined streets with a lot of banks, pharmacies, little grocery stores, etc and apt buildings set back on the little ´side streets´. My bus ride in the mornings is about 20 minutes. Angela came with me this morning to the University so I would know which bus to take and which stop to get off on. She´s so sweet and was absolutely delighted when I found my way home again for lunch. She is very helpful but isn´t overbearing. There were some students whose host-mothers came with them into the school and stuck around to help them figure out where they were supposed to be. It´s like kindergarden all over again.
This morning I started my orientation at the University. We were placed in small groups of 8 students with one student leader from the University. We´re grouped by program so I was with other ISEP students, 2 from Vermont, one from Kentucky, 1 from Colorado…and I don´t recall where the others are from. There are TONS of foreign exchange students, easily 100 or more. I think mostly from the US but I heard some girls in the bathroom speaking German. At the welcoming breakfast, they said there are students from 12 countries this semester so that´s pretty cool. We´re all anxious to speak with people who understand us and it´s pretty helpful to pool our knowledge and understanding of the language. My student leader or monitor´s name is Federico and he doesn´t speak English so when we go over things, often someone in our group will clarify and translate for someone who didn´t understand. We had a welcoming breakfast in some fancy place, the Estadio Español. They served turkey and avocado sandwhiches on white, crustless bread (that was stale, maybe it was toast?) and some kind of apple streudel type desert. We had a yellow juice, I don´t know what kind, and they had instant coffee and tea on the table and came around with hot water. There was a band that played some native music… musica folk lorica? I don´t quite know how to translate that…I guess native music would be close enough. There were some dancers who danced half a dozen or more songs and showed 2 variations of the national dance, El Cueco, I think it´s called. They picked students to dance with them several times and becuase we were sitting very close to the dance floor 2 guys from my table and I were picked at various times to dance. :p Nathan (from KY) and I were nervous as soon as we saw the dance floor and our proximity to it.
After several welcoming speeches, we had written Spanish exams and then took the bus back to the University. We had about an hour and a half recess to go home and eat lunch and then we had another talk at 3:00 about all the University has to offer and various security tips and an amusing home-made video showing various scenarios of theft. It was kind of long and boring but I´m glad they told us all they did. It really does make me feel better to see other exchange students and hear about their situations and difficulties, etc.
The Casa Central (I think it´s like any Union in another school) is built around a small patio. There are three floors and it´s very old and impressive looking. Lots of yellow and red decor…and not a lot of indigent, South-western design either…pretty simple, and classy, I think. Tomorrow there´s a tour at 9 am and then I have a speaking test with a professor so it´s another full day.
Angela is so wonderful. She´s very intelligent and very fine (cultured maybe would be a better word)…her father was a writer and a poet and she said he was very religious so his writing tended to be very spiritual. I can sort of see his influence on her. She´s traveled quite a bit in the US, I think and can speak some English, which is more of a relief than a disappointment. She loves nature and loves to describe how beautiful the south of Chile is and in the north, in the Atacam desert. She was talking about the different colors of sand and the beautiful contrast with the sky and how the moonlight makes it look like there´s snow on the ground. She also said she´s fascinated by the sea and loves to notice the color changes everyday. She´s very up to date on the latest world news and likes U2 (who happened to be in Santiago yesterday) and Bono because he is ´culta´,which is like ´cultured´, and thoughtful. She admires him because when he travels, he reads about the current problems or whatever in the region where is and then speaks about them in his concert. So…she asked if I was Catholic and we talked about mtg and she asked how she could come to mtg if she weren´t born into it and I told her she could come with me if she wanted. I wish we hadn´t had that conversation my very first day here when I could hardly communicate my name in Spanish. So, we´ll just see. I haven´t been in touch yet with the sister workers here but I´m planning to email them and find out what´s going on for Wedn. night.
The meals are very formal. She arranges some vegetables, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, broccoli in some artful way on a plate for each of us and we have that first with some bread. Then we have the main course. Yesterday we had some kind of chicken breast adobo (sorry for those who don´t know what that is, I don´t know a better way to describe it) with fettucine noodles and a bit of cheese grated on top. Then we have fresh fruit, also beautifully arranged with a dollop of yoghurt. For breakfast she bought me a tiny little bag of ´Zucar Flakes´which are very much like Frosted Flakes. Ew. But I ate them and when she asked, I told her I don´t usually eat cereal like that and that toast and fruit is fine. I think she´s going out of her way to make American food. It´s so endearing. Today for lunch we had meatballs with spaghetti sauce (with julienned carrots in the sauce) and instant mashed potatoes! This is not the sort of ´unusual food´I had in mind. She serves the food in the kitchen so I get bigger portions than I would like and I don´t want to waste food so I need to figure out some way to tell her not to spoil me or give me too much. She said she usually doesn´t eat much supper, just some tea and crackers but she served me a heaping plate of leftovers which I couldn´t eat because I was so tired. Today I have more of an appetite so whatever I can smell right now smells really good.
Of course there are tons more details that are so interesting but I better get off of here. I´m using Angela´s internet and computer…it´s time to eat now. adios!
leave any questions or things you´d like to know more about. 
Short and sweet
I just sent everyone my blog address so I expect to be getting some more traffic. I want to apoligize in advance for my tendency to ramble. I’ll try to keep the information succinct and somewhat on task in the emails but you’ve all been forewarned. Also, this is a blog. I figure if you’re here, you want to read. I don’t want to send emails that are so verbose they’re incomprehensible so I’ll save that for here. Muahaha….
Home again
Well, I’m home from Chicago. I flew out on Monday, spent the night in the Hard Rock Hotel, picked up my visa Tuesday morning from the Chilean consulate and flew back to Minneapolis Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday night I went with Ryan to student study and spent the night at Amanda’s house, where the study was. Jenny spent the night as well so it was a good time. I drove back home this morning after Ryan left for class.
All things considered, it was a nice little adventure. 
) I don’t know if I could stand to live in a big city because homeless people just scare me. One guy wished me a happy Valentine’s day and that was fine…but some other dude kept calling me “girlfriend” and told me he loved me and to pray for him. Ugh. Some other guy I saw was nearly hit by a car in the middle of the intersection because he was bending over to get a quarter off the street and as I passed him he was mumbling about God’s love for the world. It’s so sad.
I met a girl named Emily who was in Chicago for an interview. We flew into Chicago on the same flight, took the same El line and she was on my flight back to Minneapolis and she went to school in Jamestown, ND. How crazy is that?
More or less a lazy day today. I heard from Susan in my field down in Chile. There are going to be two other Chilean girls starting in a school that’s super close to Valparaiso (I apoligize here for my inability to use accents and tildes for correct Spanish spelling…there’s supposed to be an accent over the i in Valparaiso) and the workers have a bach in the same town so there’ll be a few of us close together. They’re closer to Valparaiso than I am in Vina del Mar. Sorry for being vague about a few things… I’m not sure how secure it is to have names and specific locations on the internet.
More later…
In the Last Days
Today was my last day of work! Goodbye Relay! I’m kind of sad to see the old place go…I worked there for two and a half years. Hard to believe. Anyway, the key words are “kind of”. It’s a relief to take steps toward The Big Day of February 25th and I was getting pretty sick of telling people they had dialed Relay by accident. (Note to General Public: DO NOT dial any 800 number that has TTY or TDD listed near it because it will take you to a relay service and cause operator misery if you are only trying to reach Columbia Gas Company, Alltell, your social worker, or the Treasurer’s Dept)
Yesterday was my last Wednesday night meeting. It kind of snuck up on me. I’m going to miss that little meeting. It’s become very dear to me this last year because I’m in town more consistently on Wednesdays than on the weekends or Sunday. All these lasts…
So, le weekend…I need to remember to return my library books and pay all my fines so The Library People don’t come and kidnap Sarah for ransom or something. I need to make some phone calls. I need to figure out how much winter clothing I’m going to use between the time I leave Moorhead and the time I leave for Chile. I need to pack. I need to clean my desk. I need to go to Wal-Mart to stock up on Mentadent toothbrushes because that is the one thing that I will not make any concessions on. I need my Mentadent. Unfortunately, the toothpaste cartridges are a bit bulky and I’m concerned that a suitcase full of toothpaste may look a tad suspicious. Ay, yi, yi. But it’s an exciting sort of busy. And Ryan’s coming home and that’s wonderful.
I think I can get back into the blogging habit. I’ve forgotten how liberating it is to pontificate (blab) in a public forum. I know I’ll have a few faithful readers so I hope to write at least one blog a week to keep everyone relatively updated. Thanks for reading.
Basic Information
Timeline:
Sunday, February 12th: Last day in Moorhead
Monday, Tuesday, February 13, 14th: Chicago for visa pick up and interview at Chilean embassy
Saturday, February 25th: Leave Minneapolis, fly to Atlanta, fly to Santiago
Sunday, February 26th: Arrive in Santiago, Chile
Locations:
I will live in Vina del Mar with a “host-grandma”, Sra. Angela O., and go to school in Valparaiso at Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso (PUCV).
Length of Stay:
I will be studying in Chile for 2 semesters and will be home in Minnesota January 2007.
Why:
Because I’m an English Literature/Spanish major and one language just isn’t enough. Aside from the academics, this will be a learning experiences on many levels and a wonderful chance for adventure and travel.
