Cerro La Campana (Cerro: hill)

September 22, 2008

So Saturday a group of us went to La Campana national park, about an hour and a half bus ride from Vina.  We left at eight in the morning so we would have enough time to do the full mountain hike, which is 7 hours if you go straight up and come straight down.

We were super careful because a couple years ago an exchange student from the Seattle area died from a fall.  The elevation at the top is a little over a mile high. There is a commemorative plaque somewhere on the hill indicating that it was one of Darwin’s stops on his journey around the world to collect evidence upon which he based his theory of evolution. 

I’ve never done a mountain hike before, so I didn’t really know what to expect.  Good thing we left early because we got there a little after 10am, just before they stop admitting people because they want people out of there by the time the park closes at 5:30.   

Let me tell you, the climb up was a work out! It was a struggle for me because we really pushed ourselves to get up there quickly.  But once we got to the top at about 2pm, after more than three hours of climbing, the view was totally worth it.  We hung out at the top for a while and took plenty of pictures.  You all should be able to see the rest of the photos through this link. photos I hope you all enjoy them because I worked my butt off for them!  I’m still sore today! 

Going down the hill was almost worse than going up and it took forever.  We didn’t get to the bottom until after 7pm, well after the park closed, oh well.  We then stopped and had dinner and a few beers at one of the towns on the way back to Vina.  We got back to Vina at about 11pm and I pretty much just went to bed because I was shot! 

This coming Friday our group is traveling to Santiago to see the Obama-McCain debate live.  The debate is put on by the political science department at Adolfo Ibanez (our school here in Vina) and there’s a cocktail party beforehand and a discussion afterwards.  Should be interesting. 

You can still see all my other photos via this link.  When I add photos I'll add them to this album: photos II

 

 

 

 

Excursiones

I apologize for not posting in a while.  I’ve been busy but I’ve also been kind of lazy.  The last post was about two weeks ago.  Since then a lot of stuff has happened.  A couple of days after my last post our group went to Pomaire, a small pottery town about 2 hours away from Vina.  When I heard it was a pottery town I was anything but excited to go.  When we got there however, it was actually pretty fun.  There was a lot of handmade traditional indigenous pottery, ranging from kitchenware to decorative masks.  I bought a couple of scary looking masks to decorate wherever I’ll be living when I get back (yeah, still don’t know—somewhere on campus, hopefully my own apartment).  Oh, and the other thing is that everything was incredibly cheap!  I was thinking that if I didn’t have to take a plane back with limited luggage I would buy as much stuff as I could and sell it on Craig’s List and make a killing.  After looking around for a while, our group ate at this traditional Chilean restaurant where we had giant Chilean empanadas and then a feast of meat of all sorts (check out the photos).  We then had a traditional Chilean dessert that I think is called “Mote de Huesillo”, a dehydrated peach that looks like a sheep brain surrounded in juice (I had a Physio. Lab last semester so I know what a sheep brain looks like) and at the bottom is a grainy wheat substance that I didn’t eat.  We also got to try a hand at making pottery ourselves after a brief class—not my cup of tea. 

 

The following week on Wednesday we all went to Santiago to watch Chile beat the crap out of Colombia in a partido de futbol (soccer game).  That was fun.  We all wore Chilean jerseys and shouted all the vulgar sayings that the Chileans did.  On October 15^th we are going to go see Chile vs. Argentina, their main rival, so I imagine that will be more intense.    

 

This past weekend our group went to Santiago again to actually see the city.  We left Vina really early Friday and went to a bunch of different places in the city.  It was a pretty long, sightseeing day and in the evening we went to our hostel and then got some dinner at a pretty sweet restaurant.

 

 Saturday, my birthday, we went to the general cemetery in Santiago, which was kind of a depressing way to start out my birthday, but we saw some famous peoples’ tombs—kind of boring.  After the cemetery we saw one of the houses of Pablo Neruda, a famous Chilean poet who was also a communist who had four rather eccentric houses in different parts of Chile.  He died shortly after the military coup of 1973 and some of his Santiago house was destroyed by the military.  The Chilean government later restored it and now three of his original four houses are on display.

 

There was a slight incident in the Subway in Santiago where someone in our group almost got robbed.  As some lady was trying to reach into the person’s bag another Chilean lady tried to send out a warning via hand signals.  The thief didn’t get anything, but she had her hand inside the person’s bag.  As she got off the train several other Chilean women called her on it yelling at her “thief!, thief!," as well as some other choice words.  The thief lady then ran back to the subway car and proceeded to wildly attack the ladies who called her out until everyone just pushed her out of the car just as the doors closed so she couldn’t come back in.  The incident served as a reminder to always be alert.  

 

When we got back to Vina another person on our trip realized that their host family’s house had been broken into and the person’s laptop and Ipod were gone.  Fortunately nothing has happened to me yet (knocking on wood). 

 

 We got back to Vina Saturday evening and I went home to eat dinner and then I went out with the group to celebrate my birthday. I didn’t get back until five in the morning because that’s the way Chilean nightlife is. 

 

Sunday I just slept in and enjoyed not having to do anything.  The host family was gone at Paula’s family’s so I enjoyed having the house to myself.  This week I only had class Monday and Tuesday because Thursday is the Chilean independence holiday (although I learned in my history class that the actual day that Chile became independent from Spain is February 12, it’s nonetheless celebrated in September as a Spring holiday).  I’m excited for Thursday and Friday because I guess the typical Chilean asado (barbeque) is popular during these two days accompanied with traditional celebratory beverages. 

 

This coming Saturday plans are being made to visit La Campana national park, which is just outside of Vina.  It’s a mountain like place (not sure if it’s quite a mountain but the elevation is about a mile high at the high point). They have hiking paths and supposedly spectacular views.

 

Other than all that, just the usual—going to class, trying to get a better grasp of Spanish.  I’m definitely getting better at understanding it but speaking without stuttering, pausing and thinking is still difficult, probably because I need to talk more.  It’ s surprisingly easy to get by without having to talk a lot by just answering with brief replies.  That needs to stop.  It’s just that I’m a little shy when I speak in Spanish so my default is to say as little as possible.

 

That’s about it.  You can still see photos via the “photo” link on my previous post.  I’ve added more to that album and will continue to do so.  Also, I enjoy hearing what’s going on with everyone else at home so feel free to write me.  Everyone who knows this blog address has my email or is connected to facebook.  Until next time!

 

 

 

 

 

Everyday life in Viña

September 1, 2008

Welcome to the new blog!  I added my previous post below so that it's with this post and the others.

Today marks the 17^th day of being in Chile. I don’t really have anything too exciting to report on.  We haven’t gone on any excursions or anything lately, just basically going to classes and exploring Viña little by little.  I feel like I’m starting to get a little more accustom to Chilean Spanish, although I still feel kind of clueless at meals when everyone’s talking amongst themselves.  I’m also getting more comfortable with my host family as well as Chilean culture in general and the whole new routine of taking the metro to classes and etcetera.  These things take a while for me because I’m a person who likes routine and when things change I’m put outside of my comfort zone.

 

I get waited on like a king here, which I’m definitely not used to.  I get served 3 meals a day, have my laundry done for me (including ironing, which I’ve never done or had done for me in my life!), have my bed made for me daily (even if I try and make it, my host mom comes in my room and just redoes it because apparently I don’t do it right), have my room picked up for me and vacuumed (even if it’s clean enough by my standards), and any attempt to help out with chores is almost taken as an insult.  If I’m going to miss a meal I have to make sure I call here and let Paula (the host mom) know.  I was kind of uncomfortable with all of this at the beginning, since I’m used to being independent and not having to be accountable to someone all the time, but I think I’m starting to like the getting waited on part.  Basically I just have to go to class and worry about homework for now.  

 

My class schedule is such that I only have class Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, which is probably the best schedule one could possibly hope for.  I only have three classes.  One of the classes is in English—a core Senior Seminar requirement that is taught by our program directors, the other two are all Spanish: a cinema class and a Chilean history class.  I like the two Spanish classes.  The Senior Sem. class is kind of a pain though because we’re given about two hundred pages a week to read and it’s in English, which I find to be kind of a waste of time in Chile when the whole purpose of the trip is to learn Spanish.  We’ll see how it goes, for now I’m putting the Sen. Sem. class on the back burner. 

 

I’m also going to be doing some kind of service learning program for credit, although we still do not know what options are available for that.  I know people who were on the trip last year who taught English to Chilean elementary students.  I think that could be fun as long as they’re not too little, because I could see that being a difficult job and, as much as I like kids, frankly I think it would be way overwhelming.   

 

I've posted some photos on Facebook that you should be able to access via this link: photos

If that doesn't work you can just copy and paste the following URL:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2064442&l=f124d&id=93401523 

August 20, 2008

Ok, I finally got around to posting on this thing. I made it to Chile about a week ago on Friday, and without any major problems.  The ten and a half hour plane ride from Toronto was unpleasant.  Especially since I thought I was being smart by taking some benadryl to sleep.  It didn't help me sleep at all, just made me anxious and uncomfortable.  Oh well, lesson learned.  I managed to sleep a couple of hours though.  Our group of 28 Johnnies and Bennies met in the Santiago airport on Friday at noon and we took a bus to Vina del Mar (located on the pacific coast about 90 minutes west of Santiago) to meet up with our host families.  I have a host brother (Cristobal) who’s 9 and a host sister (Camila) who will be 16.  My family has wireless internet, which is WAY COOL because I can use my laptop to go online at the house. 

 

The following Saturday morning our group had orientation at La Universidad Adolfo Ibanez, the school that we attend.  Then my host family and I had lunch with the host dad’s side of the family and dinner with the host mom’s side of the family later that evening, so I got to meet all the extended family the first day I was here!  The dinner was in celebration of a birthday and they had a big barbeque (called an “asado”) at the host mom’s parent’s house, which was awesome because we drank wine and then ate some amazing barbeque food.

 

I am realizing that Chilean Spanish is kind of difficult to understand (they don’t seem to pronounce the “N’s” or “S’s” at the end of the words much of the time).  If anyone wants a humbling experience go somewhere where you don’t have 100% fluent speaking ability in the language and watch people slow down their speech and talk louder at you.

 

So far it has all been both exciting and overwhelming. I’ve been trying to learn my way around Vina as well as learn their mass transit (which I claim to be much better than that in most US cities, even if it may be confusing at first).  I’ve found that I prefer the underground metro as opposed to the micro buses, which often appear as though they are about to burst at the seams with people.

 

Another difference between home and here is that even though during the winter months it can be quite cold (not nearly as cold as Minnesota), the houses here do not have central heat so you have to get used to sleeping with lots of blankets.  Chile is on the tail end of winter so it still can get to be in the low 40’s at night and during the day is usually high 50’s/low 60’s for the daily high temp, which is pleasant when it is sunny.

Today (Saturday) our group went on a tour of Valparaiso, the neighboring historical port city (check out some of the photos).  Tonight my host family is having some people over for my host Dad’s birthday so I’ll hang out for  a while and will probably end up going out with others at some point in the night. 

 

That’s it for now.  I hope to soon get some photos of Vina up here as well as pictures of my host family and such.  Stay tuned for that.