To sleep or not to sleep, that is the question

Yesterday I started my real classes and much to my enjoyment they were not as bad as I expcected. Medioambiente de Chile (environmental science) was not too bad, neither was espanol. The professor for Politicos y derechos humanos (politics and human rights) was a little hard to understand but the course sounds really cool. We are going to do an in depth study of Pinochet and his coup in 1973. Como hacer negocios en Latinoamerica (how to do business in Latin America) will also be pretty tough but its a fun class and hopefully I can get it transferred back as an econ credit. Now that I am settling in to a school schedule it is becoming increasingly difficult to continue to explore my new home and do the fun things around town. It has become apparent that if I would like to continue to do both the only thing I can take out of my daily routine is sleep. I have started to become a napper since it seems like I am always either mentally or physically exhausted. But thats perfectly fine because napping is widely accepted here. I can sleep for five or six hours and then take a nap when I get tired. I'm hoping I can survive the winter without getting sick and once september comes around I should be ok. Speaking of september the cinco gringos booked our spring break plans for our week long vacation the third week of the month. A couple days in Buenos Aires and then a 16 hour bus ride to Iguazu falls to see one of the largest waterfalls in the world. The trip had to be shortened a little because it is imperative that we arrive home by the 17th so that we can participate in the 4 day long independence day celebration. This year marks Chile's two hundredth birthday and from what I am hearing the party is going to be crazy. From fireworks to the Chilean navy fleet cruising around the harbor to barbeques galore lets just say I cannot wait. For anyone that is following or maybe reading a post here and there I would love to hear comments about what home or maybe an email. I have to go back to school now to start my community service that is part of my spanish class. Puedes dormir cuando estas muerto. Ciao

Building cabinets

Who knew that part of the study abroad experience was helping your host father build cabinets? Well anyway after figuring out the metric system and building this cabinet we tried to fit it into the closet only to realize that it wouldnt fit. Then we tried rebuilding it and that didnt work. So after three times we finally figured it out and now my mom has a lovely new cabinet in her bedroom closet. What a wonderful saturday afternoon. Que bueno el sabado.

Done with Spanish on to the real classes

Today was our last day of spanish intensivo as they call it, and it certainly ended with a bang. Yesterday we had a huge test incomparable to any spanish test I have taken so far in my life. Today we each had to do a ten minute presentation in Spanish, my topic of discussion; free trade between Chile and the rest of the world. I was struggling to come up with a presentation in english lets just say that. But yay the class is finally over and I have a weekend to enjoy before the real classes start. I am definitely not looking forward to that. After class today we hung out, ate lunch and watched Ned play soccer for one of the chilean intramural teams which was super cool. After heading back to vina we stopped for a girafa at the local bar and then walked around til we found a bakery. A couple of pastries and loaves of bread later we headed for the long walk home (about 45 minutes). As for tonight its off to a BBQ and then probably clubbing somewhere. We were hoping to hit the slopes this weekend but that kind of fell through. maybe next weekend. Instead we are heading to the sand dunes and beach tomorrow. I guess that is all for now. Los dias vuelan como el viento y cada dia mas rapido.

P.S. Highlight of the week definitely goes to meeting my first Chilean that has been to Shotgun Willy's.

So I guess the honeymoons over

After a great weekend of partying and dancing and living it up, I received an abrupt wake up call when I walked into class today. I guess they actually want us to do work down here. So coming up this week I have a quiz and test and a presentation all in a language that before last week I hadnt studied in two years. BUENO. So now that I have legit work to do I may have to tame the cultural learning and pick up more of the book learning. bummer. Well this is a rather short post, but i will put up the link to my facebook pictures for all of you non-facebook users that may want to look at my pictures. Enjoy. Buena suerte yo.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051680&id=1239840389&l=333a54c9bd

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2052204&id=1239840389&l=b05a8e75cc

 

First Night Out

This next post comes more than twelve hours after, however I can still hear my ears ringing at this point. Last night was my first trip out and about and what a way to start it off. First we went to a little pub/bar in Valpo with my brother his girlfriend and his friend. A few bottles of fruit wine (kind of like sangria) later we were ready to head out. At this point the gringos thought we were heading to a club for a while and then home. It wasnt until we got to the Casino that we realized exactly where we were going. Inside the casino is a club called Ovo that is hands down the classiest place I've ever partied. It looked like a high rollers club in Vegas and the security guys were only letting people in who were on the list. However, my brother was able to get us all in, and for free none the less. Last night was sponsored by one of the ski resorts so there was a ton of fake snow around everywhere, and at one point it even started "snowing" on the dance floor. Kinda reminded me of SHSTC christmas carol but thats beside the point. This place was packed and even though the drinks were super expensive it was an unreal experience. By about 3:30 we were ready to go, so we came home and crashed. A quick four hour cat nap and I was back up for the group tour of Valparaiso. The first stop was the Valparaiso home of Pablo Neruda. Wow did that guy know how to live life. He designed his house with so many intricate details, each one revolving around his passion for fun and entertainment. Not to mention that his house is perched on top of a hill overlooking all of the city and the coast. When we left Neruda's house we took a walk all around the hills of Valpo. We hopped in and out of churches and hostals, stopping along the way to check out the unbelievable wall murals. Those artists have some amazing talent. After checking out some local artisans work, we took a funicular similar to the cable car in Pittsburgh, down the hill and stopped for lunch. A brief boat tour of the harbor followed, but at that point the weather had turned a little raw and everyone was freezing. All in all an awesome day exploring the city of Valpo. Es arte y todo el mundo debe saber que los murales pueden estar importante.

Los cinco gringos

So I didnt put up a new blog post yesterday because in all honesty I didnt really do anything yesterday. I was a little under the weather and the weather was pretty shitty so nothing happened. Today however was a great day. I've come to the realization that each day I am learning infinitely more Chilean spanish (which I'll talk more about in a bit) and I am really starting to understand where I am. We had an in depth conversation about Pinochet in class today and it really woke me up to the fact that I'm not just away from home but I am somewhere completely different. After class I had lunch with my mom and talked for hours about everything it seemed. But it was awesome. Then in the true Chilean way I met up with the cinco gringos about a half an hour after we were supposed to but whatever. There is absolutely no rush down here which is great. As for the cinco gringos, that is the name we have come up with for our group of IFSA Butler intermediate students. I'm so lucky to have a group as awesome as the four other people I am studying with. I could not have asked for a better mix of people. So I met up with the cinco gringos and we headed to the beach to explore our home town of vina del mar. It was a gorgeous day, the first real warm day of late winter early spring, and everyone came out today. We had our first encounter with gypsies as the program coordinator had warned us. Because it was such a nice day we had to stick our feet in the water, and although it was super cold it felt so good. It was crazy to see the different people on the beach, from skimboarders, to freestyle gymnasts doing flips off sandbags to urban bike performers, and of course the dogs. I dont know if I've talked about the dogs hear yet but they are everywhere. Tons of dogs live on the streets and follow you wherever you go. They arent bothersome they are just everywhere. Expect for the one dog that lives at the bottom of my hill. He is domesticated but still the most annoying thing ever. I have yet to walk past his house at any hour of the day without him barking like theres no tomorrow. Whatever. So the walk on the beach turned into an exploration of the town and all the backstreets through vina. Then we met up with some other DU folk and went back down to the water for the sunset. It was unreal. If anyone looked at my facebook pictures you can tell that I was kind of obsessed with the sunset tonight. Then we headed home for the night. More talking with the family and some dinner and that was the day. All in all a great day here in Vina/Valpo. Oh and one last thing. I am quickly learning that chilean spanish is nothing like Spanish Spanish, Mexican Spanish, American (high school spanish) or really any other spanish. They have different words for everything and its basically like I never knew anything. But Asi es la vida no? Yo muero de ganas ver los proximos cinco meses.

First you get used to the culture...then you try to survive the bus system

Today was the second day of classes which was good, fun, and dangerous all at the same time. It started with an early morning for Chilean standards. When I woke up at 645 the sun had not risen, and no one in the house was awake. All the lights were off and I felt kinda weird moving around at 7:00 AM when it looked like 4:00. I met up with all my neighbors/friends that go to school with me. We walked to the micro and thats when the fun really began. After finally figuring out which micro we had to get on we realized that there were no micros with any seats available. The first micro we could find only had space for two people to cram onto so nicole and ned hopped on while me and gabe waited for the next one. When we finally got a micro gabe got on and i followed while the bus sped off. I wasnt quite on and was ready to bail when the bus slammed on the brakes and threw me off. I had to run after it for a bit and finally made it on. Tenia mucho miedo. Halfway through the trip the bus broke down and the driver just stopped in the middle of the road to work on the engine. All was good until the light turned green and all the angry commuters started laying on the horn. So we finally made it to school, climbed the ten flights of stairs and made it to class only 3 minutes late. Que bueno. Three hours of intensive spanish later we were done for the day on on to our exploration of vina. We grabbed a pitcher and some empanadas before heading home for lunch. Tonight is annas birthday so we are gonna try the discotecas and we shall see what happens from there. La gente son bueno, la vida es bonita, pero es muy peligrosa.