1. Public Transportation. It's fun, cheap, and environmentally friendly.
2. The view of Valparaiso at night.
3. A country of people who honestly enjoy dancing.
4. Getting to the cafeteria everyday and finding out whatever one received for lunch.
5. Talking in Spanish every day.
6. The stray dogs.
7. My Chilean family and how much they make fun of me.
8. The super thick juice. Watt's tutti frutti.... yummmm
9. Avocado on everything. Who would have guessed it would grow on me?
10. Learning about the culture of a foreign culture, first hand.
11. People making out in public. I think it's beautiful.
12. Statues of O'Higgins (their famous founder guy)
13. People thinking I'm interesting because I'm blonde.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Monday, July 30, 2007
Last week
I only 4 more days! ahhh. I think my next post will be a list of things that I will miss about Chile.
So last week I got to see two of my friends from home within three days. Sean came visit in the evening on Wednesday with a girl who is staying at the same hostel as his group. We walked around and the girl got a chance to see Valparaiso at night which is something really beautiful if the sky is clear. On Friday, my dear friend, Kayla came to visit. She was with a big group of students that are all studying for the Fall semester in Santiago. We went eat and then went to a bar for a little salsa dancing. It is so fun to see good friends when you are so far from home. It is just fun to think about how big the world is, yet still get a chance to meet up with friends.
This weekend we took a day trip to a vineyard and Isla Negra, the most famous of Pablo Neruda¨s houses. The vineyard was cool. They make Vina Mar wine in the Casablanca wine valley. I learned all sorts of information about the crafting of wine. As I think I said earlier, Pablo Neruda is a famous poet/diplomat here in Chile. He died in ´73, but Chileans still hold a great deal of respect for him. He was a bit eccentric and had losts of cool collections that we saw at his house. For example, 8 ship figureheads, 40 colored glass bottles, and a hige colections of shells including a norwhal tusk (gotta love them norwhals, google if you don´t know).
After we returned to Valparaiso, I went to a 5 year old´s birthday party with Shivani. I think the child was her family´s nephew. All the adults sat around a table telling stories and eating different sorts of food. It reminded my a lot of my memories of hanging out as a kid at my greataunt´s house, where we had a big Italian family.
Last night Shivani and I went to the Casino for a little bit just to see what it is like. Some of our friends go a lot, but I don´t understand all the fuss. Then again, neither of us know how to gamble, but the bingo was fun and the building is very pretty with original art work.
That is all for now. Chau.
My spanish has definitely improved and there are certain things that I can handle pretty well without thinking. Since Chileans have such aweful Spanish, I am hoping that I will understand even more in other countries where people don´t slur and drop syllables for fun.
So last week I got to see two of my friends from home within three days. Sean came visit in the evening on Wednesday with a girl who is staying at the same hostel as his group. We walked around and the girl got a chance to see Valparaiso at night which is something really beautiful if the sky is clear. On Friday, my dear friend, Kayla came to visit. She was with a big group of students that are all studying for the Fall semester in Santiago. We went eat and then went to a bar for a little salsa dancing. It is so fun to see good friends when you are so far from home. It is just fun to think about how big the world is, yet still get a chance to meet up with friends.
This weekend we took a day trip to a vineyard and Isla Negra, the most famous of Pablo Neruda¨s houses. The vineyard was cool. They make Vina Mar wine in the Casablanca wine valley. I learned all sorts of information about the crafting of wine. As I think I said earlier, Pablo Neruda is a famous poet/diplomat here in Chile. He died in ´73, but Chileans still hold a great deal of respect for him. He was a bit eccentric and had losts of cool collections that we saw at his house. For example, 8 ship figureheads, 40 colored glass bottles, and a hige colections of shells including a norwhal tusk (gotta love them norwhals, google if you don´t know).
After we returned to Valparaiso, I went to a 5 year old´s birthday party with Shivani. I think the child was her family´s nephew. All the adults sat around a table telling stories and eating different sorts of food. It reminded my a lot of my memories of hanging out as a kid at my greataunt´s house, where we had a big Italian family.
Last night Shivani and I went to the Casino for a little bit just to see what it is like. Some of our friends go a lot, but I don´t understand all the fuss. Then again, neither of us know how to gamble, but the bingo was fun and the building is very pretty with original art work.
That is all for now. Chau.
My spanish has definitely improved and there are certain things that I can handle pretty well without thinking. Since Chileans have such aweful Spanish, I am hoping that I will understand even more in other countries where people don´t slur and drop syllables for fun.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Santiago (The city of St. James)
So this weekend wewenttoSantiago, the capital of Chile. It is a beautiful city with an advanced Subway or metro system just off the Andes. There we visited the home of the executive branch, where Allende was holed up for the governments last stand before Pinochet"s soldiers took over. The buildings still have patches covering bullet holes caused when the airforce flew over the area in 73. It was really interesting to note how much more assessible their governmental leaders are. Whether through naivety or calculated risk, their leaders frequently walk the streets and their president customarily lives in their previous house with only minimal security increases and walks to work in the mornings. We also drove by their Supreme Court, the US Embassy, and the national newspaper office. We also passed the site of what will be the tallest building in Latin America (90 stories overtopping the current tallest of 45 stories)Our tour guide was half Australian half Chilean because his family moved to Australia after being exiled along with1 millionother people. (Australia was happy to take people... something about having a lot of land and a very small population, idk) He returned in 92 and has lived here since. On bad days in the winter,living in Santiago can be like smoking a packof cigarettes a day because of the smog trapped between the mountains. Luckily, we had horrible weather on Saturday which made for gorgeous weather and a view of the mountains on Sunday. We also went to the museum of Pre-Columbian Art which holds some really old artifacts with the oldest being from around 3000 BC. We also saw there the oldest mummies every discovered. Pretty cool, eh!
For dinner we went to a really nice restaurant for steak. With appetizers, salads, good steaks, wine, and dessert, it came out to around 22 USD.
We explored some other things on Sunday and took the bus home in the evening. Pictures of the trip and cultural observations to come.
For dinner we went to a really nice restaurant for steak. With appetizers, salads, good steaks, wine, and dessert, it came out to around 22 USD.
We explored some other things on Sunday and took the bus home in the evening. Pictures of the trip and cultural observations to come.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Thursday, July 19, 2007
So many stories
Lo Siento, It has been a week since I last posted. I never meant to let time pass me by. I'll just give a couple sentences about each day.
Friday
We leave the bus station from Vina del Mar for our 12 hour bus trip to the South. We went to Pucon, Chile which is apparently a beautiful place in their summer.
Saturday
We arrive in the morning and get settled in our cabins. This is the first time we've had heating in a home since we arrives, so that was nice. In the afternoon we went to a natural hot spring/pool type thing.
Sunday
Today we were supposed to climb Volcan Villarica, but the weather was too bad to the climb even if the roads were passable, so I went horseback riding with two of my friends in the hills near the mountains. Other students went white water rafting and we met back up for dinner at an Uruguayan meat restaurant. We had something called a Parrilla which is essentially a lot of meat piled on a heated serving tray. Several of us have not eaten a lot of rd meat here, so it was a trat. Also, I had relatively spicing mashed potatoes. It was the first well seasoned food in 2 weeks!
Monday
I went to a nearby "indigenous city" called Temuco. The indigenous people here are the Mapuche and our Spanish teacher recommended we go there. The place was not especially culturally significant. The most enlightening part of the experience was realizing that our teacher had a very misconstrued concept of what it meant to experience Mapuche culture.
Tuesday
Nothing much special happened. Just classes. We are learning about the reforms after Pinochet took over the country in a military coup in 73. Basically the country switched from heavily socialism to free market capitalism at its most extreme in a very short time.
Wednesday
My friend Sean Gahagan is living about thirty minutes away by train from me right now in Quil Pue, so I went see him for dinner last night. The train is only a year old and was very easy to use. Sean is working with other West Point students building houses in another small city for a month, and it was great to get to see him. h hopes to come see me in Valpo. next week.
Thursday/today
I'm sitting in Casa Central of the university right now. After I say good by, I hope to post some pictures. They'll be on Facebook, but I'll try to add a public link here for other people to see. Hasta Luego!
Eric
Friday
We leave the bus station from Vina del Mar for our 12 hour bus trip to the South. We went to Pucon, Chile which is apparently a beautiful place in their summer.
Saturday
We arrive in the morning and get settled in our cabins. This is the first time we've had heating in a home since we arrives, so that was nice. In the afternoon we went to a natural hot spring/pool type thing.
Sunday
Today we were supposed to climb Volcan Villarica, but the weather was too bad to the climb even if the roads were passable, so I went horseback riding with two of my friends in the hills near the mountains. Other students went white water rafting and we met back up for dinner at an Uruguayan meat restaurant. We had something called a Parrilla which is essentially a lot of meat piled on a heated serving tray. Several of us have not eaten a lot of rd meat here, so it was a trat. Also, I had relatively spicing mashed potatoes. It was the first well seasoned food in 2 weeks!
Monday
I went to a nearby "indigenous city" called Temuco. The indigenous people here are the Mapuche and our Spanish teacher recommended we go there. The place was not especially culturally significant. The most enlightening part of the experience was realizing that our teacher had a very misconstrued concept of what it meant to experience Mapuche culture.
Tuesday
Nothing much special happened. Just classes. We are learning about the reforms after Pinochet took over the country in a military coup in 73. Basically the country switched from heavily socialism to free market capitalism at its most extreme in a very short time.
Wednesday
My friend Sean Gahagan is living about thirty minutes away by train from me right now in Quil Pue, so I went see him for dinner last night. The train is only a year old and was very easy to use. Sean is working with other West Point students building houses in another small city for a month, and it was great to get to see him. h hopes to come see me in Valpo. next week.
Thursday/today
I'm sitting in Casa Central of the university right now. After I say good by, I hope to post some pictures. They'll be on Facebook, but I'll try to add a public link here for other people to see. Hasta Luego!
Eric
A quick catch up
Ok so I've finally got my computer to the area with free wireless for the first time. Below are thee reflections that I wrote on the plane and as we rode the bus from Santiago to Valparaiso.
I woke up this morning with the sun shining in my face over the Andes as we approached
We spent our time in the airport leafing though the
Ok so I’m now headed to
Tasks for the day:
Master peso to dollar conversions in my head. 1 peso to about 510 pesos
Thursday, July 12, 2007
One Day in the Life...
So here is an example of what I do in a day. This was yesterday.
8:40 Wake up
Shower, eat a breakfast of hot/warm chocolate milk and bread with butter, honey, or marmalade
9:35 Hop on the Micro (bus) for a 8 minute bus ride at 290 pesos (527 pesos to the dollar)
Check my e-mail and facebook in the office at Casa Central before my class.
10:05 My Spanish class starts. We spend 30 minutes talking in Spanish about Chilean culture, idiosyncracies, and how our previous day went.
11:35 We head to the cafeteria at Casa Central, so they can heat up the food that their Chilean parents provided. I knew we were going eat elsewhere on this day, so I chill
12:00 We hop on the bus back toward my house and hike up Cerros Alegre to explore and find a place to eat. We eat at El Desayunador (The Breakfast Place) and catch up. I ate a Queso Caliente con jamon en pan italiano for 1200 pesos and drank a chocolate caliente con canela for another 1000 pesos. (Hot ham and cheese sandwish on "italian" bread and a hot chocolate with cinnamon.
1:30 We rush out the door after we pay our total with a tip slightly more than the customary 10%.
2:00 Arriving just in time for Economics, we speak with our Professor about the Chilean education system, its cost-efficiveness or lack thereof, and learn generally about the history of Chile¨s developement from its founding until now. (We will focus on the specfic periods late this week and next)
4:00 Class ends. This is the only time each day that we are all necessarily together. With different classes in the morning and people arriving just before the beginning of econ. We now talk about different ideas for the remainder of the evening and the night.
4:10 I tag along with a crowd heading to Viña. We explore a hill and determine that the view from others is much better. We then go to this park that was once the home of a wealthy politician. His wife had imported exotic plants and the mansion is now an art museum. There is also this amazing ampitheater that looks looks crazy.
5:30 Head to the mall to purchase Harry Potter tickets and then home to grab a bite to eat and do my homework.
8:00 We eat our dinner which consists of bread, butter, and avocado. Afterwards we have a plate of something similar to Jambalaya except with corn and idk what else.
I help my Chilean brother read through a information sheet that I have written in English and do my Spanish homework.
10:00 I head out back to the mall via a collectivo, a taxi for several people at once. That runs 550 pesos which is slightly more than the 400 bus ride to Viña, but I did not find the correct bus, so I splurged.
10:30 I watch HP5 with a couple friends and then head home for the night getting in around 1:30 to sleep and watch up again!
I am going to try and put up some pictures tommorrow! We are heading 12 hours to the south to a town called Pucon near Volcan Villarica. It should be amazing, we plan on climbing the Volcano, but it will be cold. I was 1º C or pretty much freezing yesterday.
8:40 Wake up
Shower, eat a breakfast of hot/warm chocolate milk and bread with butter, honey, or marmalade
9:35 Hop on the Micro (bus) for a 8 minute bus ride at 290 pesos (527 pesos to the dollar)
Check my e-mail and facebook in the office at Casa Central before my class.
10:05 My Spanish class starts. We spend 30 minutes talking in Spanish about Chilean culture, idiosyncracies, and how our previous day went.
11:35 We head to the cafeteria at Casa Central, so they can heat up the food that their Chilean parents provided. I knew we were going eat elsewhere on this day, so I chill
12:00 We hop on the bus back toward my house and hike up Cerros Alegre to explore and find a place to eat. We eat at El Desayunador (The Breakfast Place) and catch up. I ate a Queso Caliente con jamon en pan italiano for 1200 pesos and drank a chocolate caliente con canela for another 1000 pesos. (Hot ham and cheese sandwish on "italian" bread and a hot chocolate with cinnamon.
1:30 We rush out the door after we pay our total with a tip slightly more than the customary 10%.
2:00 Arriving just in time for Economics, we speak with our Professor about the Chilean education system, its cost-efficiveness or lack thereof, and learn generally about the history of Chile¨s developement from its founding until now. (We will focus on the specfic periods late this week and next)
4:00 Class ends. This is the only time each day that we are all necessarily together. With different classes in the morning and people arriving just before the beginning of econ. We now talk about different ideas for the remainder of the evening and the night.
4:10 I tag along with a crowd heading to Viña. We explore a hill and determine that the view from others is much better. We then go to this park that was once the home of a wealthy politician. His wife had imported exotic plants and the mansion is now an art museum. There is also this amazing ampitheater that looks looks crazy.
5:30 Head to the mall to purchase Harry Potter tickets and then home to grab a bite to eat and do my homework.
8:00 We eat our dinner which consists of bread, butter, and avocado. Afterwards we have a plate of something similar to Jambalaya except with corn and idk what else.
I help my Chilean brother read through a information sheet that I have written in English and do my Spanish homework.
10:00 I head out back to the mall via a collectivo, a taxi for several people at once. That runs 550 pesos which is slightly more than the 400 bus ride to Viña, but I did not find the correct bus, so I splurged.
10:30 I watch HP5 with a couple friends and then head home for the night getting in around 1:30 to sleep and watch up again!
I am going to try and put up some pictures tommorrow! We are heading 12 hours to the south to a town called Pucon near Volcan Villarica. It should be amazing, we plan on climbing the Volcano, but it will be cold. I was 1º C or pretty much freezing yesterday.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Last night my friend Shivani and I went walk around one of the main streets of Viña. It was really cool because I finally found a beach and it over looks the ocean/bay. (Check out google maps or earth if that confuses you) From the Viña side of the bay you can see all of Valpo which is beautiful at night. I{ll have some amazing pictures.
Before that I told my brother that I wanted to see the son ending (I didn{t know the word for sunset) so we walked out to the wharf, (not the marina they are diff. apparently) and walked on this path along the water. Oh p.s. I totally saw sea lions!
Here are some facts (hechos) about my trip in general. (en general or generalmente)
1. We are a grand group of 14 Tulae students.
2. There is very little central heating in Chile.
3. Their graffitti is very cool. I{m collecting an album of graffitti pictures alone.
4. The absolutely love avacado (la plata) and eat it on bread, in sandwiches, and on their special hotdog (el completo).
5. Mi mama is divoriced, but her ex has been at our house to hang out 3 times already. Divorce just became legal here in the past 1 or 2 years.
6. I take a 5 minute bus to the Casa Central each day that costs 290 pesos (530 pesos to the dollar) The ride to Viña is 15 or 20 and costs 400 pesos.
7. They eat their big meal at 2ish and around 8 they have bread with avacado, honey, or butter.
8. Valpo is about an 1.5 hour bus ride from Santiago, the capitol, in the interior of the country.
9. It{s winter here. Last night at 2 a.m. it was 8° C or about 46° F.
10. Each hill (cerros) has a different name. I live on la plana or the flat part near the water but near Cerros Alegre y Cerros Concepcion. The have elevator or sideways elevation type devices that hope you up part of the way for 100 or 200 pesos.
Choi!
Before that I told my brother that I wanted to see the son ending (I didn{t know the word for sunset) so we walked out to the wharf, (not the marina they are diff. apparently) and walked on this path along the water. Oh p.s. I totally saw sea lions!
Here are some facts (hechos) about my trip in general. (en general or generalmente)
1. We are a grand group of 14 Tulae students.
2. There is very little central heating in Chile.
3. Their graffitti is very cool. I{m collecting an album of graffitti pictures alone.
4. The absolutely love avacado (la plata) and eat it on bread, in sandwiches, and on their special hotdog (el completo).
5. Mi mama is divoriced, but her ex has been at our house to hang out 3 times already. Divorce just became legal here in the past 1 or 2 years.
6. I take a 5 minute bus to the Casa Central each day that costs 290 pesos (530 pesos to the dollar) The ride to Viña is 15 or 20 and costs 400 pesos.
7. They eat their big meal at 2ish and around 8 they have bread with avacado, honey, or butter.
8. Valpo is about an 1.5 hour bus ride from Santiago, the capitol, in the interior of the country.
9. It{s winter here. Last night at 2 a.m. it was 8° C or about 46° F.
10. Each hill (cerros) has a different name. I live on la plana or the flat part near the water but near Cerros Alegre y Cerros Concepcion. The have elevator or sideways elevation type devices that hope you up part of the way for 100 or 200 pesos.
Choi!
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Buenas Dias,
So we did not get to the penguins because we could not figure out which bus to take but I did get a chance to explore Vina de Mar. I live in Valparaiso in teh city, but the other students are living in Vina. In Vina we went to a artesian market where you can get a pair or cool earing for USD $1.50. Generally it is the crafts, the food, and the alcohol that is the cheapest here. Electronics are a little more expensive. The reasons for these things is something that we are studying in my economics class called the Latin American Economic Developement.
Last night I went out with the other students to a well known gringo (white foreigner) bar. The second floor had what another student called a beer garden. I really liked the ambience there. Afterwards I went with one hermano Alejandro or Ale to meet up with the other Gonzalo or Zalo at Club Duff a very popular Friday night dance club and bar. The plce was a smidge overwhelming to say the least. We ended up watching kareoke on the bottom floor because the dance floors were just too packed.
The director of our program changed right before we left but the new lady is very cool. She used to direct Tulane{s undergraduate program, is very knowledgable about the area, and her kids (5 and 8) are awesome and well behaved.
I think for this weekend, I will be exploring more around here because we have trips planned for the other weekends. Let me know what you want to hear about. More about Chilean culture to come that{s for sure. Choi!
So we did not get to the penguins because we could not figure out which bus to take but I did get a chance to explore Vina de Mar. I live in Valparaiso in teh city, but the other students are living in Vina. In Vina we went to a artesian market where you can get a pair or cool earing for USD $1.50. Generally it is the crafts, the food, and the alcohol that is the cheapest here. Electronics are a little more expensive. The reasons for these things is something that we are studying in my economics class called the Latin American Economic Developement.
Last night I went out with the other students to a well known gringo (white foreigner) bar. The second floor had what another student called a beer garden. I really liked the ambience there. Afterwards I went with one hermano Alejandro or Ale to meet up with the other Gonzalo or Zalo at Club Duff a very popular Friday night dance club and bar. The plce was a smidge overwhelming to say the least. We ended up watching kareoke on the bottom floor because the dance floors were just too packed.
The director of our program changed right before we left but the new lady is very cool. She used to direct Tulane{s undergraduate program, is very knowledgable about the area, and her kids (5 and 8) are awesome and well behaved.
I think for this weekend, I will be exploring more around here because we have trips planned for the other weekends. Let me know what you want to hear about. More about Chilean culture to come that{s for sure. Choi!
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Hola mis amigos!
Hey everyone,
Right now I am sitting in the office where are classes are held. I had typed some observations during the flight but they are on my computer and this is a public one. This afternoon I think we are going to a small town north of Valpo to see penguins. It should be really interesting.
My family is really cool. I do not speak with mi mama chileana much because I find her harder to understand, but her kids are really cool. As is very normal here, they are college students but live with her. Yesterday we went through the music on my computer and apparently we like many of the same bands.
For lunch yesterday we went eat in a park, but apparently the food that I has was supposed to be heated. O well. It was a type of indigenous soup.
Got to go!
Right now I am sitting in the office where are classes are held. I had typed some observations during the flight but they are on my computer and this is a public one. This afternoon I think we are going to a small town north of Valpo to see penguins. It should be really interesting.
My family is really cool. I do not speak with mi mama chileana much because I find her harder to understand, but her kids are really cool. As is very normal here, they are college students but live with her. Yesterday we went through the music on my computer and apparently we like many of the same bands.
For lunch yesterday we went eat in a park, but apparently the food that I has was supposed to be heated. O well. It was a type of indigenous soup.
Got to go!
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Chile: Check One, Check Two, Check, Check
Hey everyone. This is the introductory post for my Chile blog. I wanted to keep my friends and family up to date with my studies and adventures while I am abroad. At some point point I'll even be incorporating pictures. **Dun dun dun!!
I'll be leaving for Valparaiso, Chile on Sunday July 1 and returning on August 3. While I'm in Chile, I'll study Economics and Spanish at Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso, stay with a family, and take trips to other parts of Chile on the weekends. There are about 14 Tulane students participating in this summer program, three of which I already know. It's sure to be a great experience, and I'm glad that you are vicariously (what a cool word) joining my on this journey.
-Eric
I'll be leaving for Valparaiso, Chile on Sunday July 1 and returning on August 3. While I'm in Chile, I'll study Economics and Spanish at Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso, stay with a family, and take trips to other parts of Chile on the weekends. There are about 14 Tulane students participating in this summer program, three of which I already know. It's sure to be a great experience, and I'm glad that you are vicariously (what a cool word) joining my on this journey.
-Eric
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