Random Blurbs

By Request:

 I guess a lot of people don't know the actual reason that I'm here in Chile so, by request from an individual who shall not be named, I will oblige. ;)

 I'm on a Study Abroad program in Santiago, Chile for the Fall semester and will be here until just before Christmas. I'm taking Spanish classes (for the first time in my life :p ), a political science / economics class focusing on the political and economic relationships between South and North America, and a Latin dance class. Motivation for the adventure? I've always wanted to speak Spanish and have been trying to travel abroad ever since I went to the U.K. in 2005. This is my last year in college and since I only need one more semester before graduation and I won't start med-school until next fall, I decided to fill the time with as much awesomeness as possible. I figure this will be extremely beneficial for me because I should be able to become at least fairly conversational in Spanish by the end of these four months and this type of experience will look really good on my med school applications. Another opportunity I have here is a program that I will join volunteering in a home a couple times a week with children who have cancer. I'm not sure this opportunity could be more perfect for me since my plan is to be a pediatrician. :)

Chilean Culture:

So, I fit in here very well because personal bubbles do not exist in Chile. When greeting someone, you greet them with a kiss on the cheek, the only exception being for males greeting other males that they aren't close to. The first time a girl I just met kissed me I was taken back a bit but it's an easy thing to get used quickly. :) Along with greetings, people are very touchy-feely so you're regularly in physical contact with people while conversing with them. This is something I usually have the tendency to do anyway, but have learned to restrain myself back home. Therefore, this way of communication is more natural for me. Now if only I could actually speak to these people...

People here LOVE American music. I came here expecting to hear a lot of Latin music but almost everything I hear is American pop music, particularly from the 80s and 90s. This is really interesting to me because a lot of these people don't speak any English, but really love to hear the English songs. Some of them who barely speak English even sing right along with their favorites. Just something interesting to me. 

Other random interesting things:

In Santiago, there are a ton of stray dogs. Every street (literally every street) you walk down there are at least a couple dogs either wandering around or laying down somewhere. I guess it's also very common that dog owners will let their dogs out for the day to let them roam around and then bring them back in at night. So not every dog you see is a stray but there are a lot of them.

The metro in Santiago is super nice. It's very clean, easy to navigate, and the trains come quickly and travel smoothly. I think I'm really enjoying the big city and not just because it's Chile. I'm told that Santiago has 6.5 Million people and I'm really enjoying all the people and all the attractions.

This may be obvious, but an interesting observation I've made is that the younger the Chilean is the more likely they are to know English. A lot of high schools in Chile are requiring that kids know English before they graduate but this is a new thing so current college-aged kids typically know a bit but not as much as their younger counterparts. Another thing that is new to Chile is diversity. In the last ten years there has been a large shift in immigration and lot of other ethnic groups have moved in. There is a significant Asian population here now. Also, Peruvians are kind of like the Hispanic equivalent to the U.S. here. Typically, they are more poor and just trying to get a better life. Chile is the richest country in South America right now, especially since Argentina's collapse 11 years ago, so there has been a major rise in immigration.

Anyway, I think that's as much randomness that I can conjure up right now. As the amazing adventure continues I will write more. :)

This is a view from Cerro San Cristobal at sunset overlooking the South-Western side of the city and The Chilean Coastal Range which is the Western branch of the Andes.

First two days

I flew out of Peoria Tuesday evening and landed in Dallas for a layover where I met with the other students from USAC going to Santiago on the group-flight. It was nice to get acquainted with them and we all connected quickly. The flight was fun even though it was a red-eye. One awesome thing about it was watching the sun rise over the Andres as we flew over the coast of South America.

When we landed, we eventually met with our program director, Luis, who checked us in and put us on a bus to the hotel. The rest of the day was spent at the hotel having orientation and lots of food. The morning of day two in Chile was just a little more orientation and then our families came to pick us up. Oscar, my host dad, came to get me. He owns a photocopy store I think, and doesn't speak much more English than I speak Spanish so our conversation was broken but we were able to get to know each other a bit somehow. Monica, my host mom, works for an airline in their office downtown. Oscar (23) and Felipe (19) both go to college but I don't think they go to the same one I do. Everyone is gone all day long at work or school. It seems that the earliest anyone gets home is around seven at night and dinner is usually served around nine or ten. We also have a maid, Nelly, who is at the house all day everyday except for Sunday. I've been given a room that is attached to the main house where I also have my own bathroom, which is nice. It's basically what we would call the mother-in-law suite, so I have an external entrance. Even though we live in what seems like a really nice neighborhood, we have to keep everything locked all the time. We have gates in the front and bars over all our doors and windows. So I guess crime here is quite the problem. The cold is starting to get to me now. Yesterday wasn't too bad, but it's definitely winter here. Utilities are super expensive here so no one keeps much heat going in their houses. I have a nice space-heater for my room, but it's still really chilly (no pun intended... heh heh heh). Tomorrow, Oscar (dad) will take me to more orientation with the USAC group where I'll begin to get familiar with the metro system and a bunch of other logistics like money. After a few hours of orientation tomorrow, we'll be free for the weekend and then classes start on Monday. My class schedule is really nice. I have three hours of Spanish every morning. Monday I have a three-hour economics class and Tuesday I have a Latin Dance class, so school should be a lot of fun this semester.