Food, Transportation and other stuff

My first weekend went really well. Yesterday I decided to venture out and go to the mall in Viña del Mar (the neighboring town) by myself. It was quite an experience! It took about 15 minutes by bus, and the mall was like nothing i've ever seen before! It was two buildings, across the street from each other, and both buildings are 4 stories high! The mall was so jam packed with people, it was hard to get around. Complete chaos! It was fun though and I found some neat stuff. There are big department stores like in the US, of course with different names, and small stores as well. Alsmost anything you can think of. There are also two movie theatres in the mall that show both American films, in Spanish, and Chilean films as well. I was able to find my way there and back so it was a successful day!

The buses really are something you have to experience! There are tons all over town with the numbers and destinations written with soap or paint on the windows, so you have to pay attention and try hard not to miss the bus you need! It costs $250 pesos, which is about $0.50 in American dollars for each ride on the bus, but once we are given our university ID card it will be a lot cheaper. The buses are pretty old but it´s funny because almost all of them are Mercedes...riding in style! Sometimes there is room for everyone to have a seat, but other times there are people standing and no room to move. The town is up on huge hills with winding roads, and the buses don´t drive with any precautions (like all vehicles in Valparaíso). Needless to say, bus rides are pretty scary and you have to hold on tight in order to not go flying across the isle!

Taxis are another form of transportation in the city. There are normal taxis that take you where you need to go for different prices, and there are also community taxis that have signs on top with specific areas or neighborhoods. These taxis you share with other people going to a place near where you are going and they are a lot cheaper than normal taxis. You get in the community taxis with up to three other random people, but I prefer the buses. However, late at night, taxis are sometimes the only option.

There are tons of small cafes and restaurants around. It seems like the most popular foods to serve at restaurants are hot dogs! They are the same as American hotdogs but with a Chilean twist. They top their hot dogs with things like avacado, tomato, and a white cream/cheese sauce. I have only eaten out one time, where me and a friend tried a Chilean hot dog, but I don't know much else about what restaurants serve...i´ll have to add more on that later!

Food in the house has been pretty good. They eat a lot of bread and drink a lot of tea and wine (which is a specialty of chile). They also eat a lot of fruit, salads, cheese and avacado. One thing that I have enjoyed are what they call tortillas, but they aren´t what you think they would be! Their tortillas are made in a frying pan with chopped up veggis (one kind per tortilla), and egg to make a flat, almost like pancake type dish. We have had celery tortillas and carrot tortillas. Lunch is the big meal, and breakfast and dinner are smaller.

I miss everyone and I love getting your emails and comments!

Pictures!

You can go to this website to see all of my pictures from Chile!

http://photos.yahoo.com/cracker14c

My first weekend!

I´ve been in Valparaíso, Chile for a week now and i´m having such a good time and learning a lot! I finished orientation this week where we met all of the other exchange students, learned about the university, toured the city and registered for classes. The exchange students are from all different countries, including Germany, Sweden, Mexico, Brazil, Frace and the United States. Everyone speaks different languages and it´s so cool that Spanish is now our common language! Two of my best friends i´ve made here so far are from Germany. Last night (Friday), the mentors from orientation, who are also students at the university, took all of us out to a pub in Viña del Mar, the neigboring town where a majority of the exchange students live. It was pretty different from clubs and bars in the Unites States. It was two floors, where the first floor had a bar and a dance floor, and the second floor was like a big lounge with couches and tables. They served pnuts and chips, and candles were lit on all of the tables. There were huge screens both upstairs and down, where music videos played. The night started out with everyone sitting upstairs talking and getting to know one another, then led to dancing. I met so many people and got to speak a lot of Spanish! Since we went out in Viña del Mar, I was nervous about getting back to Valparaíso, but luckily three of the mentors also live in Valpo (for short), and we took a bus back together, and then a taxi to our houses. Overall it was a fun night! There are a lot of mixed opinions as to whether people prefer Viña or Valpo. Valpo is more historic with old houses and stone streets. Viña is more up to date and has highrise buildings and McDonalds restaurants. I guess with my stay here I will have a chance to learn each city a little better.

Today I spent the day helping my family set up for a surprise birthday party for my madre here. I learned from some of the mentors last night that the family I live with actually comes from an Italian background which explains alot about how much they talk and spend time with family and friends! About twenty people came to the house for the party and it turned out really well! People began talking and catching up, then everyone sat down for tea and apetizer type foods. María (my madre) opened all of her gifts and everyone continued to talk. I was so excited that people couldn´t believe i´d only been here for a week, and told me I understood and spoke so well. That definitely helped my confidence! After some time talking at the table, they brought out a huge cake, which people ate and had more coffee or tea. Still sitting at the table, they brought out different types of finger foods and the night went on talking and having fun. The family is absolutely wonderful and so friendly. I couldn´t imagine being in any other house!

School and other things

This week we have been having orientation at the University. The first couple days we just learned about the school, and met some of the staff. Yesterday we took a tour of the campuses. There are about 10 different buildings that belong to the university, and each one has classes of different areas (art, history, sciences etc). The buildings are so spread out between Valparaiso and the neighboring town, Viña del Mar. I don´t see how students make it from place to place in time for their classes! I registered for my classes and luckily they are all in two buildings that happen to be side by side. I registered for quite a few classes and will go to all of them the first few days, then choose which ones I like the best. I signed up for Human Anatomy (to learn all the body parts to possibly translate in a hospital one day), a class that teaches both French and Portuguese, a class in Chilean Dialect, a class in Translation, and a few more. I´ll let you know how it all turns out! After I registered for classes I also signed up for an Intercambio, where they pair you up with a Chilean student. You meet as often as you can for an hour, and spend half of the time speaking in Spanish and half of the time in English. It improves both of your language skills. I am excited to see who I will be paired with!

I have met a few people during orientation and hopefully will be able to travel with them and do thins on the weekends. My family is wonderful though so I want to spend as much time here as I can. Dinner is always the highlight of my day. The family sits down to eat and it always turns into game time, initiated by the seven year old, Ángel. We have played I spy and telephone which is so much fun in Spanish! I was surprised how quickly the language came back to me once I got here. Chileans definitely talk different than any spanish i´ve heard and I am still getting used to it but I think I will learn so much while I´m here!

A little about the town

I´m getting more and more settled in Valparaiso each day. The city is right on the water and you can see the Andes Mountains from certain points as well. There are so many amazing views. A lot of the residential part of the city is up on huge hills which makes walking a lot more difficult! There are hundreds of streets that wind through the town and it is impossible, even for locals, to completely know their way around. I now know how to get to school and back by bus so I think I´m doing pretty good! Drivers here are absolutely crazy, and every time you have to cross the street it´s a sprint for your life! They drive so fast through the city and don´t pay attention to people or other cars or anything else for that matter. Horns honk every second but it´s just part of their way of life. One thing that gets to me is there are stray dogs all over the streets and no one pays them any attention. I am such an Animal lover and it is hard to deal with, but my family informed me that it´s normal and people just don´t care as much for animals as we do in the states. My house sister that is studying to be a vet tries to adopt the stray dogs out, which is wonderful! I´m going to try to go with her one of these days when she posts signs and talks to people.

Although the bus stop is pretty far from my house, the school is too far to walk to so I take the bus to and from school. It costs the equivalent of about $0.50 each way, but when school starts we will get a student discount. Right now it is their cold and rainy season and I didn´t come prepared as far as shoes go. I have been wearing tennis shoes and my feet are soaked and freezing by the time I get home! It has been my mission the past two days to find a pair of boots, which hasn´t been easy because typically the biggest size they make in women´s shoes is equivalent to a 9 in the US and I wear a 10. After looking and looking I finally found a pair of not so attractive rain boots that fit, but they will get the job done!

I am also getting accustomed to tea. Chileans drink hot tea with every meal, and while I´ve never been one to drink tea, I must say i´m enjoying it! The food has been really good so far. I told myself I would try everything once, and there have been a few things I didn´t like, but not many. They serve bread and salad with every meal. Lunch is the big meal of the day and we have had pasta, rice, pancakes covered in spinach and a white cream sauce and other things. Dinner is usually just bread with leftovers from lunch (and tea of course!). I am finally getting used to the money here and can estimate pesos versus dollars.

My family and my house

There are about 130 foreign students going through the orientation program with me, and everyone either lives in Valparaiso or Viña del Mar (the next town over). I live in Valparaiso and am pretty close to the University so that´s a plus. My house and my family are wonderful. When I arrived at my house they were very welcoming and showed me to my room right away. The house is two stories, but most of the houses here are connected so it´s more like a town house. My room is downstairs and is huge! It´s such a different experience then Spain where two of us were crammed in a tiny room. My room here has a queen size bed, a huge closet and drawers for my clothes. There are big bay windows that have an amazing view, and too much space to know what to do with! My room is right by a varanda in the back (like a big porch), and it leads down into their backyard that is a huge garden, filled with flowers and fruit trees. They also have three dogs and a cat that are mostly outside, but come in occasionally during bad weather. It´s winter here now, their cold and rainy season so that was a lot to get used to! When I got on the plane it was about 90 degrees and when I got off it was about 40 degrees!

My house is definitely a full one! My madre has three daughters and a son. Her son is married and lives in a house near by. The oldest daughter is also married, but lives in our house with her husband and their seven year old daughter. The middle daughter is my age and studies music, and the yougest daughter is 19 and is studying to be a vet. The nephew, also my age, lives there as well, and speaks English so he helps if I ever need anything. A friend of the family from France is arriving today and will also be staying in our house. A lot of people but it makes things so much more fun and interesting! They all joke so much and I haven´t stopped laughing since I got here! It´s pretty cold at night because there is no heat, but they put an individual heater in my room so that helps a little.

It would be great to hear from all of you! Here is my address if you have the time to send a letter:

Lautaro Rosas
449
Cerro Alegre
Valparaiso, Chile

Arrived in Chile!

I´m finally getting settled in with my family, but the trip here definitely had some rough spots! I had a pretty long layover in Atlanta so I decided to exchange my money for Chilean pesos, then while I waited to board the flight I actually met a girl who is in my program here. We had a chance to talk and she was as nervous as I was. It was good to know I wasn´t the only one! The flight was about 10 hours and when we landed in Valparaiso we had to pay a $100 fee to enter the country. However, you have to pay in American dollars and I had already exchanged all of my money in Atlanta! So I had to exchange it back for American dollars, only to be told that I was given Columbian pesos which are worth next to nothing and they could offer me only $19 in American money! I was so frustrated and had no idea what to do. Luckily the friend I met on the flight paid my fee for me and everything turned out ok. After we went through customs and got our luggage, there was a taxi driver sent by the university waiting with a sign with our name on it. It made things a lot easier to get from Santiago to Valparaiso! The trip by taxi was about an hour and a half and the views were amazing. There were mountains, vinyards and waterways. I was in my taxi with two girls from Germany who are also studying here, and was the last to be dropped off at my new family´s house.

Preparations

I'm leaving for Chile in less than two weeks. I figured a blog would be the easiest way to keep everyone updated on my trip. There are so many things that need to be done before I leave, it doesn't seem like there's enough time! I'm going to miss everyone so much. Make sure you keep in touch and let me know what's going on in the states! I will be living in Valparaiso, Chile, which is right on the coast, not far from Santiago. I've seen pictures and it looks beautiful! I'm excited but pretty nervous about not knowing anyone there, and adjusting to a completely different dialect of Spanish. I hope my skills are all still there! Love you all and we'll be in touch!