Oh how I will miss you

It's hard to believe in less than a month I will be returning to the states. It's unbelievable how time passes you by.. I already have a list created of all the things I have yet to do! Since I love lists, here is one:

Things I will surely miss from Chile:

1. fresh fruit and vegetables all the time
2. my host mother’s cooking
3. the friendly, caring people and their hospitality
4. gelato ice cream for 2$ USD
5. riding the micros (buses) everywhere
6. delicious bread!
7. someone to make my bed everyday (Thank you Erika!)
8. speaking Spanish but also speaking English without anyone knowing what I’m saying
9. guy friends carrying my backpack, waiting for the bus with me and/or walking me home at night (so sweet) =)
10. wine and its cost
11. spending hours in restaurants without feeling rushed to leave
12. hugs and kisses everyday
13. the complete lack of consciences of time
14. the immense beauty and creativity of this country
15. and of course, the staff of ISA, my host family and all the friends/amazing people that have made my experience here unforgettable

I'm not homesick yet. Is this normal?

Written at the end of May

I think I may have discovered I am someone who adjusts easily to change. In all honesty, there are not a lot of things back home that I couldn’t live without I’ve learned. Primarily, just people. Despite how “uncivilized” or how "third-world" people think Chile may be, I do have access to things and if not, there are usually substitutes. But these are the things I miss most:

1. my dog
2. bagels with cream cheese
3. real orange juice
4. convenience of having a car
5. friends & family
6. greenery & fresh air

What season is it?

As it is getting warm there, it is getting colder here! When I first got here, the weather was beautiful with lots of sunshine and warmth. It was perfect after months of snow in Michigan. I was hoping this beautiful weather would remain throughout my entire stay here in Chile, but the last couple weeks have felt more like Michigan’s fall season. It’s currently May and mind is confused. It doesn’t know what to think as I walk through crunchy leaves, when the month of May is associated with sun and flowers. The weather here varies from day to day and even between Valpo and Viña. One day it is sunny and warm. The next day it is cold, cloudy and rainy. On these days, I look forward to the summer time of warmth and sun that I will return to.

Homesick

For the first time, I really felt homesick. As you know this past week I went to Peru with some friends for the whole week. We had an amazing time (more on that soon!) there. Needless to say though, I ended up getting violently ill on Monday on the train ride to Machu Picchu. At first I thought it was altitude sickness, as I felt light-headed and queasy the higher the train climbed into the mountains. I threw up on the train and the miserable action continued the rest of the day after we made it to Aguas Calientes, where we had a hostel reservation. To make a long story short, I couldn’t hold anything down. I threw up 13 times and spent the entire day running from the bed to the bathroom. My good friends and the hostel staff were worried about me and called a doctor. As a real bonding experience, they all saw my bare white butt as I received a shot on the hostel bed (what a sight). Turns out I had food poisoning and was clearly dehydrated. Thankfully I was able to see the Peruvian doctor (who was quite friendly and made me feel comfortable in such an awkward situation but who cares about embarrassment when you’re that sick, right?) and we made it to Machu Picchu bright and early the next morning. Thanks to my Electoral (equivalency to Pedialyte, I’m sure) I didn’t die at Machu Picchu.

Anyway, before the trip was over three of the four of us were all sick and all we talked about was eating some good food from home. We didn’t want to eat the food anymore in Peru due to how miserable we felt. To be honest, all we really wanted was some home-made chicken noodle soup (we bought packaged Ramen to try to satisfy that need) and to be sick in our own beds in our own homes instead of in some hostel bunk-beds. When I arrived home on Friday night and my host mom asked how our trip went, I informed her of my illness. To my surprise she made me chicken noodle soup and all day Saturday she took care of me. She made me dinner in bed and prepared some delicious herbal tea for me as some sort of medicine. Since we were returning from Peru to our host families in Chile and not back to the states as much as we wanted, this was the closest thing to feeling at “home”. And it was awfully nice…

First Week of Class (and second too!)

My first week of classes was alright. It was a little stressful trying to find them and make sure I was in the right class and whatnot. It was like being a freshman all over again. Here in Chile, it’s normal to be 15 minutes late for everything so that concept helped. I really like my classes. I am taking all Spanish courses that focus on the language.

This last week was my second week of classes. I was really busy as I had HOMEWORK for the first time in a few months. However, it was real easy and nothing too time-consuming. The nice thing about my classes is that I don’t have to lock myself away and spend all night studying. It’s more about experiential learning, which is awesome. Yesterday (Thursday) in my Chilean Culture class we had to go out of the classroom and ask Chileans to give us definitions to words our professor had provided. The words were “Chilenismo”, which is the language here; different from Spanish. We had to ask them what the word meant and to use it in a sentence. Most of the words were provocative and inappropriate so that made for a good time. It was super intimidating and scary to approach other Chilean students in such a way. Most of them laughed at us since we didn’t know what we were asking in Spanish anyway. Haha It was fun though.

I really like all of my professors too. They already know our names! The professors here are so laid back. They wear jeans to class and answer their phones in the middle of lecture too. Definitely not what I’m used to but it definitely takes pressure off trying to be formal in situations.

First Week

Viña del Mar:

Valparaiso:

This past week was my first week in Viña del Mar and Valparaiso. I live in Viña with a family but go to school in Valpo. They are very close to each other but very different. Viña is more modern and touristy looking, while Valpo is more colonial and colorful-looking. I like being able to experience both because they are really different from each other.

Along with tours and school orientation meetings/business, I have been trying to adjust to a new culture. It’s really hard for me to talk in Spanish here. I feel as though I have forgotten everything I’ve learned and all that I have learned is invalid. They speak super fast here and drop the ends of half the words in their sentences. Half the struggle is trying to understand what they are saying… then how to reply in Spanish. Hopefully it will get better and my Spanish can only improve at this point.

My family is really nice and sweet. I’m privileged to live with them as they are quite wealthy. The house is huge and I have my own room and bathroom. The best part of the household is the food. Chilean food is known to be bland but the food I have been eating here is everything but bland! It’s amazing and let me tell you, I will never go hungry because she feeds me like there’s tomorrow. After a few days of packing me lunches, I had to ask her to give me less because I couldn’t waste it but couldn’t eat it all either…

We toured Valpo and Viña in order to get to know the cities. We toured downtown both cities, took a boat ride in Valpo, visited several different beaches/piers, Pablo Neruda’s house (second of three), and the Mueseo a Cielo Abierto (Open Sky Museum). All excursions were very interesting but were rushed so I hope to go back to the places on my own time.

This last week we also registered for classes, which is another story in itself. I don’t think they could have made it any more harder for us and before it was over, I think we all wanted to cry. We are restricted by the classes we can take but they also had put them back-to-back, as well as overlapping them all. So, there was not a lot of flexibility to schedule and not to mention, the campus buildings are scattered all over Valpo and Viña so you have to allow time in between classes to get from one building to another by bus. Since I am volunteering, I plan to only take 3 classes (still 14 credits) and tried to schedule them so they were all in the same building or at least directly next to each other. We start classes tomorrow (Monday). Wish me luck as I try to find my way around carrying a Spanish dictionary….