"I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here"

First, a few random thoughts/feelings/observations:

I'm really surprised I haven't had much difficulty adjusting to life here.  I'm sure a lot of this has to do with the fact that I have an awesome host family, and I really like everyone in my program.  I suppose Santiago is much like the major cities in the US, but in my opinion, it's cleaner, more picturesque, and has WAY cheaper food.  You can get a heaping cup of gelato for just 500 pesos, which is about a dollar!  You can also buy empanadas and other types of "Chilean fast food" for about the same price.  My biggest difficulty here has probably been the smog.  Because of the cold weather and the mountains that line the city, the smog basically settles around Santiago and doesn't leave.  It's been giving me a cough and I've felt pretty congested for a solid week.  I've really only been able to get a clear view of the mountains from the city two times since I've been here.

My Spanish has improved so much in just two weeks.  I feel like I've learned more since I got here than I ever learned in one of my language classes.  It's amazing how much of a difference it makes to be immersed in the language--I'm so glad I'm living with a host family and that I'm getting a chance to really practice my Spanish. 

The World Cup is EVERYWHERE here.  This is partly a cultural thing, since soccer is way more popular here than in the US, but it's also because it's been 12 years since Chile has made it to the world cup.  Every T.V. commercial is somehow related to the world cup--it's like a perpetual Super Bowl!  I feel really lucky to be here while Chile is playing in the Mundial--it is fun to be a part of it. 

This past week mostly consisted of going to classes and doing homework.  My general schedule consisted of going to public health classes from 9-12:15, and then medical Spanish classes from 2-3:30.  Tomorrow, however, I finally get to start the observation portion!  I get to wear my lab coat and act all doctor-y!

This weekend I took a 2-day trip to Valparaiso (again) and Viña del Mar with 6 other friends.  The 90 minute bus ride to Valpo is super cheap--I think we paid about 10 dollars for a round trip.  The first day was really rainy, but despite the rain, we had a wonderful time.

 

The group plus our doggie friend

The awesome seafood restaurant, El Rincón de Pancho.  Service includes: cat sitting under our table, old troubadour men playing from table to table, beautiful view of Valpo, and delicious fried fish.

Pescado frito y papas saltadas

A breathtaking view of Valparaiso

Casino Social J Cruz, a hole in the wall restaurant where we ate lunch and watched the US-England game the second day.

Chorrillana, a dish of french fries, onions, fried egg, and steak (AKA heart attack on a plate)

The next day we went to Vina del Mar, which is the city right next to Valparaiso. From this city, you can see and smell the ocean.  We took a hike up to Castillo Wulff. We spent an hour or two there taking pictures and watching the ocean.  We were lucky enough to be there during a really pretty sunset, too!

Castillo Wulff at Sunset

The sky doesn't even look real!

I think it's crazy that I've been able to see so much diversity in terms of cities, people, and landscapes, and I haven't even gone farther than 2 hours from Santiago!  That's why I love it here in Chile :-)

Valpo and Isla Negra

Last weekend our class went to Valparaiso and Isla Negra.  This trip has definitely been the most fun so far!

Valparaiso is the second major city of Chile. It is a port city on the coast and is only about 1-2 hours away from Santiago. Valpo reminds me a lot of San Francisco (although I've never been there), probably because of the quaintness and colors of the residential areas. There's also a lot of interesting graffiti. Most of the residential areas are located on the many "cerros," or hills. You can get to the top of many of these hills by riding one of the "ascensores," which is basically an old cable car on that holds about 6 people. These things are probably about 100 years old, so it was a little scary riding such a rickety car! The views from the cerro were really pretty. We ate at a restaurant there too, which was delicious. I don't really know what we ate...but I know it was good!

After Valparaiso we went to Isla Negra, where we got to tour one of Pablo Neruda's homes. These are some pictures from Isla Negra:

Villa Grimaldi

Last week, our class went to Villa Grimaldi, a park where political prisoners were tortured and interrogated during the government of Pinochet. Pinochet was a dictator who was in office from 1974 to 1990. About 5 thousand prisoners were brought to Villa Grimaldi to be tortured, and hundreds were killed. Most of the buildings in which torture occurred are now demolished, but this the original pool is still present. This prisoners were submerged in the pool until the point of almost-drowning as a means of torture. Ironically, the torturers' children and wives swam in this pool for fun on the weekends.

This was a really interesting place to visit, and I'm glad I got to learn more about Chile's history, even though it has a darker side to it.

Mi Casa, La Comida, y Mas!

Here are some pictures of my apartment, my bedroom, my balcony (yeah, I have a BALCONY!), and the IES center, which is where I go for most of my classes.

Since I got here, I've been eating a TON of food.  At my house, I've been eating a lot of chicken, soup, and vegetables.  I've also been drinking an insane amount of juice--it's awesome!  My family makes their own juice so it tastes really good.  Here's a list of some of the typical Chilean food and drink we learned about:

Comidas:
Chacarero - a type of sandwich with green beans, beef, guacamole, tomato, and chili pepper.
Empanada - a stuffed bread that can be filled with a lot of things like meat, cheese, vegetables, seafood; the post popular kind is the pino, which contains beef, onion, olive, and egg
Completo - like a hot dog; it usually has tomato, avocado, mayonnaise, and sauerkraut
Barros Jarpa - melted ham and cheese sandwich
Barros Luco - basically a cheese steak sandwich
Sopaipilla - fried pastry made from squash and flour; can be sweet or savory

Bebidas:
Mote con huesillo - rehydrated peaches and barley kernels with peach juice
Pisco - sweet brandy made from grapes
Piscola - pisco and coke
Pisco sour - pisco, lime, and sugar
Vino navegado - wine heated with orange, cinnamon, and other spices
Fanschop- fanta and beer

My host mom loves pisco sours--she's made me 5 already this week! ;-)

...More to come on Villa Grimaldi, Valparaíso, and Isla Negra!

Orientation!

I'm just finishing up my 4th day in Santiago and my last day of orientation.  My flights went really well, but traveling for 24 hours straight really wore me out!  About 10 students from my program ended up on my same flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to Santiago.  One of the first things I did when I got off the plane was get some coffee...but it definitely wasn't the kind I was used to!  I had associated South America with good coffee...but I was mistaken.  Good coffee has to be imported to Chile and it's really expensive...so Nescafe is EVERYWHERE.  Even decent restaurants, etc. serve instant coffee, and you have to specify that you want "CAFE cafe" if you want to get the real thing.  Most people here drink tea, so I've been drinking a lot of that instead.

One of the other first things I noticed was the COLD!  It was super cold and foggy.  It's weird to experience summer one day, and to experience winter only 24 hours later!  It won't get nearly as cold as Baltimore, thankfully!

I spent Sunday with my host family.  Their names are Myriam and Esteban--they have an eight year old named Andres a 3 year old named Vincente.  They live right in the middle of Providencia, which is a pretty nice part of the city.  My room actually has a balcony where I can look out and see a lot of the city! 

I could only understand about half of what my family said to me the first day, but it's getting a little easier each day.  Chilean accents are really difficult to understand, but everyone keeps saying that if you can understand Chilean Spanish, you can understand any Spanish. 

During our first day of orientation, we went over a lot of the basics of Chile and our program, and we got to meet the whole group for the first time.  There's about 35 of us! 

On the second day, we had more orientation classes and a group of us went to La Moneda, which is the office of the President, Sebastián Piñera.  There were a lot of police (carabineros) there, which was intimidating, but I soon discovered that they're really friendly! They also are really fond of the stray dogs that roam around Santiago (I hope I don't try to smuggle one back home). 

Oh yeah, I also got lost on the second day.  I was taking the metro home for the first time and I got on the right line, but just went in the wrong direction.  It was pretty easy to get back on track, though, and now I think I've officially conquered the Santiago metro system!  It's pretty simple, actually...a lot easier than New York or D.C.

On the last day of orientation, got to visit Cerro Santa Lucia, which was really neat.  We got to walk up these small, winding stairways all the way to the top, where we got a really good view of the city (except for the fog/smog).

At the bottom of Cerro Santa Lucia

The view from only about 1/3 of the way up!

Tomorrow is our first official day of classes.  I'm taking the clinical observation seminar portion at La Pontificia Universidad Católica and the medical Spanish portion at the IES center.  The actual observation will start in about a week or so, and that will be at the Clínica Universidad Católica, which is, if I understood correctly, a private teaching hospital.  I'm excited!

I'll post some pictures of my homestay and the IES center and more soon!

Tengo que hacer mi tarea!

Starbucks

I'm sure no one is surprised that I looked up the Starbucks locations in Chile.  This one is just 1 km away from where I'll be living!  If I'm feeling homesick, you know where I'll be!

12 Days!

So, some logistics for my trip: I leave on May 29 and return on July 20.  My flight will go from D.C. to Dallas/Fort Worth, and from there I'll be flying straight to Santiago!  My address will be:

Hernando de Aguirre 353 APPT. 32
7510067 Providencia
Chile

I just received info about my family - I will be living with a married couple with two sons who are 3 and 8 years old!

Today I began giving myself a crash review course on Spanish.  That's probably what I'm most nervous about--whether or not I can communicate somewhat coherently.  I guess I'll find out soon!