17 April 2010, Saturday
Okay, so it's been about a month since I last posted anything, so I figure I should try to say SOMETHING. Apologies to anyone who is reading this blog with dedication. I would like to claim that I've been far too busy to write anything on here, but that would be a lie. The truth is, I'm terribly lazy... mind shatteringly lazy...... so lazy that even the gods, for whom one of our years is like the blink of an eye, watch me from their seats high in the cosmos and say “DAMN, is he EVER going to move?!?” That being said, here is a summary of my past month or so, highlighting the interesting things, avoiding talking about sitting still and angering the gods.
Okay, well, let's start with the week after my last post. On that Friday I went on a tour of the neighboring city of Valparaiso that was offered by my school. The tour started in the afternoon, and ended pretty close to sunset. We traveled into Valpo (everyone just says Valpo) by bus and walked towards the center of town. Our first stop was a port area where we got onto a boat and took a tour of the bay. We got to watch lazy sea lions (lobos del mar, or sea wolves, in Spanish) and look at various cool boats while hearing a history of the area. The guide explained how important of a port Valparaiso used to be, but that it has lost much of its importance thanks to the Panama Canal. Before that, everyone had to travel around the bottom of the country, making Valpo very important for sailors. We also drove by some Chilean warships which we were told not to photograph. This seemed like a kind of silly rule; if you don't want people to take pictures of your battleships, why the hell are they in a major city port? It seems like you'd at least TRY to hide them a little bit. The boat ride was pretty uneventful beyond that, I wasn't terrible excited about looking at sea lions, but then, I'm not usually too pumped about just looking at stuff anyways.
We got off of the boat and spent some time browsing a nearby marketplace (most of the girls were looking at the cheap jewelery). After this little break, we went to the nearest ascensor (elevator), which basically looks like a ski lift that you stand in instead of sit on. We took that up the hill, and from there the guide took us through the various cerros (hills) of Valpo, showing us interesting landmarks such as the churches in the German district and many of the murals which are sporadically dotted around the area. These murals are actually a form of graffiti that is protected and encouraged by the government, because they started being created as a form of resistance to the military dictatorship of Agusto Pinochet. My personal favorite was one that had a depiction of Pinochet and the subtitle PINOSHIT. Now the murals extend beyond political protest, some describe Valpo in a kind of picturesque way, while others are simply artistic. A new wave of stenciled graffiti is sweeping the city as a form of protest against the current (and recently elected) president, Piñera, who owns a large stake in the largest news-media company in Chile. Chilean law dictates that the president has to sell his holdings upon entering office as a way to protect against vested interests. Piñera has been quoted as saying, “solo los muertos y los santos son los que no tienen conflictos de interés,” or, “Only dead men and saints don't have conflicts of interest.” Because of this situation, there have been numerous graffiti speaking out against the situation of free press and media in Chile. Anyways, after the tour of the cerros we took a bus back to campus and went home. The tour was a lot more fun than I expected! The rest of the week pretty much passed uneventfully, with me going to class, coming home, etc. I probably played cards with Julianne and Chris at some point during the week as well. We've started playing ERS, and it's very disconcerting because both of them are actually better than me! This never happens, so it's a little bit weird. Then again, we were playing with sandwiches, 69's, 69 sandwiches, and doubles. Since I usually just play with doubles, maybe I'm just at a handicap...
Okay, the next Friday was the wine tour. A lot less people went on this than on the Valpo tour, I imagine because it was more expensive and just generally less interesting. I mean, if you don't like wine, why go on a wine tour? Then again, I don't really like wine, so, um, yeah. It was also more expensive then the other tour. Anyhow, the tour started off on a pretty poor note for me, since we were supposed to meet up at two and my host dad woke me up at 2 asking if I wanted lunch. I leaped out of bed and hurriedly got ready for the tour. I ran out of the house without eating and jumped on the first bus going down the hill. When I got out of the bus I literally ran from there up towards campus, and, like a pro, manage to fall flat on my ass right when I came into view of the waiting students. Yes, this was BEFORE the wine tour that I was falling over like a drunk. From our group, only Sarina, Lindsay, and Mai were there, but there were also a few French girls and all of the Mexican girls. The first place we went to was quite cool, with sprawling vineyards and a big production area. They primarily cultivate white wine here because the climate is better for those types of grapes. This particular vineyard was also big on producing wine, to the point that other vineyards would ship their product to this facility to be processed. We got to sample some white and some red wine, all of which was quite nice. The guide taught us how to properly drink wine, but it felt like she was putting us on because it seems quite ridiculous. I bought a bottle of incredibly cheap wine there, and then we moved on to the next vineyard. This one was bigger than the last, with a large vineyard and more production space. This winery, unlike the last, was more focused on quality, however, as the guide at the first vineyard had told us that their focus was quantity. We got a pretty broad sampling of wine there, I think five different glasses. For some reason, these samples weren't like a little sip, however, but all of the samples were really like a full glass of wine. By the 5th sample I just took a sip and stopped, since I really didn't want to pass out drunk on the bus or anything (since I hadn't eaten lunch). It actually turned out quite well and I didn't die or make a drunken ass of myself, so that's good!
The following Tuesday I got my first chance to go to a teaching experience at a local school that is sponsored by the Chilean Government. They are trying to recruit native English speakers who are studying in Chile to come to the schools and help the teachers with English lessons. The idea here being that English is a very important language for business and international success. I got there a little bit late, because once again I had bus-related issues. Once we got there (at about 8:05), we ended up waiting for something like 20 minutes to talk to the director of the school. After her, and her sub-director chatting us up for a while about the school, how the girls here “son malas” and so on, we got the chance to go talk to the English teachers. They were relatively nice, although it was entirely too difficult to explain to them what our schedules were. We (Sabdy and I are the only ones teaching English so far) ended up getting our schedules set and leaving at about 10:30, so it took two hours for us to tell them what our availability was. This is, of course, keeping in mind that we had already given them our schedules a week ago. It was impressively unproductive, so I'm hoping that the actual teaching will go better.
From there, my time here has actually been quite uneventful up until a few days ago. On Thursday I got invited to go both to Cafe Journal and to Camille's birthday party (French student). Julianne and I were headed to Cafe Journal when we got the call to come to the birthday party (I had known about it previously and was just waiting for a call/forgot about it somewhat). We had only just started walking down the hill a very short distance when Anna called, so we ended up calling our friends at Journal (Sarina and Lindsay) and telling them we'd meet them at the party. I don't know if it's pathetic that we chose to go to the party at Anna's rather than go first to Cafe Journal and then to the party because we wouldn't have to walk as far, I don't think so... After a longer than expected trek uphill towards Anna's apartment and a serendipitous meeting with some other friends from the university who helped us actually find Anna's place, we arrived at the party. When we got there Camille was in the kitchen making food for everyone to have (which looked amazing). I wished her a happy birthday and sat down on the couch. After hanging out for a while and pouring myself a piscola, the party moved to a picnic/grill area in the apartment complex. Everyone ate, drank, and was merry. We pretty much spent the whole night just hanging out, drinking, talking, etc. One Chilean at the party was making choripan, which is basically just like a hot dog, but with chorizo and better bread than crappy hot dog bread. It was delicious! At one point Camille and Anna broke out some marshmallows, so I got to showcase my amazing marshmallow roasting abilities. After a few hours the festivities started dying down, so everyone wanted to move the party to Cafe Journal. I was ready to sleep, however, as alcohol makes me instantly tired, so I opted to go home. All in all, it was a very fun night though!
Friday flew by very uneventfully, partially because I'd been so busy that I really wanted to sit around doing nothing. Saturday, however, was another birthday party, this time for Adrienne, a really nice Bolivian girl in my Cultures in Contact class. Mai, Julianne, and I all met up and took a bus to the mall area where Adrienne was having the party. We actually didn't get lost, which is always nice, and showed up to the party without much incident. When we got there, there was literally only one girl already there and the rest of the group was guys. This seemed odd to me until a bunch of women showed up at once, reminding me of the style of parties in the U.S., where all of the women get together somewhere to get ready then all come as a huge group. At any rate, it was a really cool party. The theme was colors, so you were supposed to wear bright colors (I don't really own any and Mai was given way to short of notice to know). There were brightly colored balloons all over the room and blue colored alcohol. We stayed at the party for a while, talking amongst ourselves and occasionally with the Chileans and Bolivians there. It was a little bit less welcoming than your average gathering here because not so many of these people were international students like the rest of us, but a group of friends from Bolivia combined with the Chileans they had met here. This made it a little bit harder for us to walk up to people and start conversing with them. I got a few more comments on my weird accent today, which Julianne continues affirming is a Mexican accent, whereas I'm thinking that it's an amalgamation of various different accents that I've heard, but with a strong Mexican twist. We ended up walking home instead of taking a bus or colectivo, which totally seemed like a good idea up until the moment when Julianne and I arrived at the bottom of the hill that goes up to our houses. For some reason I always underestimate how arduous the walk up that hill is. At any rate, Saturday was another night well spent.
On Tuesday, I had to get up super early for my first actual teaching experience at a local high school. I got there at precisely 8:00, when I had agreed to be there last week. I went to the faculty room where I was told and waited around for about 20 minutes, talking to the professors who were in there. After this chunk of time, I opted to just start wandering around looking for the appropriate classroom, because I decided that the teacher had probably just forgotten that I was going to be there; perfectly understandable. Some woman with some relation to the school (I have no idea what, secretary of some sort maybe, clerk?) noticed my confusion and led me to where an English class was going on. The teacher there seemed surprised to see me, and explained how I was supposed to be helping the other English teacher. I pointed out that she wasn't there, and the teacher told me that she was sick and would be coming in soon, but I could wait in the teacher's lounge if I wanted to. I decided to go ahead and sit in on the class instead, since there would be no point in waiting alone. I got a chance to help a few girls out with their presentations they were working on, and they all seemed really nice. Many of them were at varying levels of English proficiency, which could obviously make things very difficult for the teacher. The woman who was teaching today didn't seem terribly enthusiastic, but perhaps she was just having a bad day. After this class ended, she led me back to the teacher's lounge (picking up Sabdy on the way, who is the one who is supposed to be in her class) and told me to wait there for Ana Carina, the other English teacher. I ended up waiting around for an hour and then just leaving because I had to go to class. Oh well, I guess I wasn't going to get a chance to help this time. Hopefully this day was an exception to the rule, but I'm a little bit concerned that it won't be. Half of the faculty and staff in the colegio didn't seem too confident about these girls' ability to learn or about how much they actually wanted to learn. I hope they aren't getting sold short, but, like I said, this was just one day.
Well, that pretty much catches me up to current day, super abridged version. That cuts out most of the sitting around and doing nothing that I've been up to, which I promise hasn't been all of the time. Hopefully when I transfer this from Word to the internet it's not going to be a massive death post like my first one, but I think it actually will be a massive death post, so sorry about that! If you've managed to read through to here, good job to you. If anyone's got any bright ideas or suggestions about what I should do with my remaining time here, please leave a comment and tell me, because I'm always looking for more things to do!
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Delicious Juice, Poor Translation, Temporary Work Ethic
18 March 2010, Thursday
Only one class today, and it wasn't terribly eventful. We were going to watch a video, but the professor had trouble getting the sound to work so we just talked about some other basic facts about Chile (apparently they have the same technology issues here as in the U.S.). Other than that, class was pretty ho-hum. We mostly learned in detail about things that I've already gone over in the past in more general classes, such as the history of independence in Chile, Bernardo O'Higgins, etc. The French girl still isn't back, I think she'll be in class on Monday though. We chatted briefly after class again, parting ways at the bus stop as usual. I broke down and bought a bottle of juice on the way home, it cost 500 pesos, and pretty much tasted like drinking a delicious peach. I think they have better juice flavors in general here, like melon, peach, papaya, instead of fruity tutti, strawberry explosion, etc. It tastes more like juice and less like flavored sugar, although I'm sure it's probably the same thing. Today was pretty similar to Tuesday, in that I didn't really do anything. I strongly considered going to the gym again today, but a soft bed and fully charged game boy said otherwise. I had planned to go to a pretty cool sounding club with Chris tonight, but apparently there's some kind of promotion going on tomorrow, so he's waiting until then to go. I'm not sure if I'll go yet or not, I may not go if something different comes up, but it looks like the best way to get out of the house most of the time is going to be going to bars.
Other than eat lunch today, I really didn't do much. I didn't even open up my laptop after school to talk to people on Skype or anything, I was really just in a mood to sit around. I did watch TV for a while in English, reading the subtitles as they went by, noticing how the show I was watching (which was a relatively ok sitcom) would be significantly less interesting if you didn't speak English, because the subtitles lacked the feeling of the writing. Other than that, I didn't do anything of note today except for eating, which I don't think actually counts as something of note. It was really warm out today though, in retrospect, I should have gotten some friends together to go to the beach, oh well.
I got into a really productive mood tonight (as I am occasionally apt to do) and slammed out the whole week's journal entries, so I'm hoping that I didn't leave anything out due to putting it off. I've also been semi-working out in my room, but it's pretty fruitless because I probably won't keep it up, defeating the purpose in general. Oh well, at least I can say I tried a little bit now, yes, off the hook!
Only one class today, and it wasn't terribly eventful. We were going to watch a video, but the professor had trouble getting the sound to work so we just talked about some other basic facts about Chile (apparently they have the same technology issues here as in the U.S.). Other than that, class was pretty ho-hum. We mostly learned in detail about things that I've already gone over in the past in more general classes, such as the history of independence in Chile, Bernardo O'Higgins, etc. The French girl still isn't back, I think she'll be in class on Monday though. We chatted briefly after class again, parting ways at the bus stop as usual. I broke down and bought a bottle of juice on the way home, it cost 500 pesos, and pretty much tasted like drinking a delicious peach. I think they have better juice flavors in general here, like melon, peach, papaya, instead of fruity tutti, strawberry explosion, etc. It tastes more like juice and less like flavored sugar, although I'm sure it's probably the same thing. Today was pretty similar to Tuesday, in that I didn't really do anything. I strongly considered going to the gym again today, but a soft bed and fully charged game boy said otherwise. I had planned to go to a pretty cool sounding club with Chris tonight, but apparently there's some kind of promotion going on tomorrow, so he's waiting until then to go. I'm not sure if I'll go yet or not, I may not go if something different comes up, but it looks like the best way to get out of the house most of the time is going to be going to bars.
Other than eat lunch today, I really didn't do much. I didn't even open up my laptop after school to talk to people on Skype or anything, I was really just in a mood to sit around. I did watch TV for a while in English, reading the subtitles as they went by, noticing how the show I was watching (which was a relatively ok sitcom) would be significantly less interesting if you didn't speak English, because the subtitles lacked the feeling of the writing. Other than that, I didn't do anything of note today except for eating, which I don't think actually counts as something of note. It was really warm out today though, in retrospect, I should have gotten some friends together to go to the beach, oh well.
I got into a really productive mood tonight (as I am occasionally apt to do) and slammed out the whole week's journal entries, so I'm hoping that I didn't leave anything out due to putting it off. I've also been semi-working out in my room, but it's pretty fruitless because I probably won't keep it up, defeating the purpose in general. Oh well, at least I can say I tried a little bit now, yes, off the hook!
Two Classes in ONE Day, Cafe Journal, ID Fail, ID Win
17 March 2010, Wednesday
Today I actually had two classes, basically the two I had the past two days, but on the same day. I left, as usual, a little bit early to account for the 15-20 minute walk to school. Now all of our classes are in the same room, so we've been continuing the seating configuration that I set out on Tuesday. The French girl wasn't here today, and won't be here tomorrow because she's going on a trip, I guess now is the time to go. Class was relatively uneventful, except for one, err, misspeak by me. For some reason, when I was trying to explain how weird it is for me that my mom here cooks dinner, we eat while she's still in the kitchen, and then she sits down and starts eating right before we finish, etc. I said, in place of “ella cocina la cena” (she cooks dinner) I said “ella cocina el dinero” (she cooks money). This obviously resulted in a few confused looks, especially because I didn't understand what I had said wrong. Other than that, today wasn't terribly eventful. We all talked after class about going to Cafe Journal tonight. Most everyone there expressed some form of interest in going. Julianne, Lindsey, Trenton, etc. all said they would probably go. Since Julianne and I both got out of class at the same time today, I didn't have to walk alone up the hill, which made the walk far less difficult on my poor aching calves.
We had lunch right around when I got home, and I had planned to go after lunch to the gym to work out. This plan was derailed by a greater desire to play game boy instead. After playing for a little while, I ended up taking a nap until dinner time (like a pro). I then pretty much just sat around until around 10:30, since we were planning to leave for Cafe Journal at around 11:00. Chris wanted to leave a little bit earlier, so I got on Skype and rushed Julianne out the door. We ended up leaving from the bus stop at around 11:00 anyways, but I guess that beats the 11:15 that we probably would have ended up leaving at otherwise.
----- Random Side Note: While talking to Julianne on Skype, I had thought to remind her to bring her ID, then decided that she's an adult, and obviously she would bring her ID to a BAR. -----
We made it down to Cafe Journal relatively quickly, and on the way I got to give directions to a Chilean, YES! I felt like a badass, because I've only been here for a little over a week and I already was able to give someone directions, win! Anyways, we got to the bar and there actually were a few people already lined up outside to go in. Not that there was a wait, just that there were that many people trying to get in. At this point is when Chris and I start pulling out our ID and I tell Julianne to, to which she responds that she didn't bring it.
----- Side Side Note: I have done this. -----
So now we're standing outside of a crowded bar, looking at two large bouncers holding a thin chain across the doorway, wondering what to do. My first thought is that we're going to have to all walk back up the hill, while Chris starts saying we can just take a collectivo up there and then take another one back down. I'm obviously against this idea because this involves spending money, something I'm not apt to do. After a little bit of rapid talk back and forth, I told Julianne to just go up to the bouncer, and explain, in her best, stilted Spanish/English combo that she forgot her ID and can she please go in anyways, hoping that being a cute girl will excuse the fact that she's very short, thus doesn't look of age (sorry). Chris and I stood back while she started walking up to the door, and simultaneously as she started getting close to the bouncer, he turned around and started arguing with someone behind him. All attention was focused inward, away from where Julianne needed to be going, and the bouncer was holding the chain out from the door, Julianne glanced back at me and I immediately gestured for her to just go in. In retrospect, we're badasses, because she totally pulled this off, turning and walking into the bar without a complaint (good job Julianne). Like a fucking movie, as she walked in the doorway, the bouncer turned around in such a way that he always had his back to her and replaced the chain blocking the doorway. Chris and I (along with a random stranger standing behind us) all started laughing, and we made our way into the bar.
Julianne's pro sneaking into the bar was pretty much the highlight of the night for us though, since no one else we knew showed up. Instead, it was me, Julianne, Chris, and at one point a random friend of Chris', Matt. We talked and drank (although Julianne decided to waste a perfectly good Pisco Sour). It was pretty fun, but since no one else we knew came, I could tell that things would be getting relatively boring pretty fast. Chris got up to go attempt to talk to Chileans, and I almost joined him, but I decided that leaving Julianne alone with some guy we don't know when she doesn't speak Spanish would kind of suck, since he might end up to bore the hell out of her or something. After a little while, Julianne wanted to leave, which I was pretty okay with, since no one else was there and Chris was off mingling. At first one of her host brothers who was there offered to walk her home, but I said I could do it, since once she left I wouldn't have anyone to talk to anyways. First we went to find Eric to tell him that he wouldn't have to bring her home, but Julianne and I got separated (it was ridiculously packed by now) as I went to look at the bar and she went into a back room. Eventually we found each other in the crowd and managed to get out (it literally took like, 4 minutes to travel 5 yards, with me pushing through the crowd aggressively). The walk back wasn't terrible, although a 15 minute long uphill walk after a liter of beer is a little bit difficult. Once I got home, I think I went straight to bed, although I might not have, once again, I'm a few days late on writing this, so the details are a little bit hazy. It was actually pretty cloudy for most of the day today, but the sun did eventually come out.
Today I actually had two classes, basically the two I had the past two days, but on the same day. I left, as usual, a little bit early to account for the 15-20 minute walk to school. Now all of our classes are in the same room, so we've been continuing the seating configuration that I set out on Tuesday. The French girl wasn't here today, and won't be here tomorrow because she's going on a trip, I guess now is the time to go. Class was relatively uneventful, except for one, err, misspeak by me. For some reason, when I was trying to explain how weird it is for me that my mom here cooks dinner, we eat while she's still in the kitchen, and then she sits down and starts eating right before we finish, etc. I said, in place of “ella cocina la cena” (she cooks dinner) I said “ella cocina el dinero” (she cooks money). This obviously resulted in a few confused looks, especially because I didn't understand what I had said wrong. Other than that, today wasn't terribly eventful. We all talked after class about going to Cafe Journal tonight. Most everyone there expressed some form of interest in going. Julianne, Lindsey, Trenton, etc. all said they would probably go. Since Julianne and I both got out of class at the same time today, I didn't have to walk alone up the hill, which made the walk far less difficult on my poor aching calves.
We had lunch right around when I got home, and I had planned to go after lunch to the gym to work out. This plan was derailed by a greater desire to play game boy instead. After playing for a little while, I ended up taking a nap until dinner time (like a pro). I then pretty much just sat around until around 10:30, since we were planning to leave for Cafe Journal at around 11:00. Chris wanted to leave a little bit earlier, so I got on Skype and rushed Julianne out the door. We ended up leaving from the bus stop at around 11:00 anyways, but I guess that beats the 11:15 that we probably would have ended up leaving at otherwise.
----- Random Side Note: While talking to Julianne on Skype, I had thought to remind her to bring her ID, then decided that she's an adult, and obviously she would bring her ID to a BAR. -----
We made it down to Cafe Journal relatively quickly, and on the way I got to give directions to a Chilean, YES! I felt like a badass, because I've only been here for a little over a week and I already was able to give someone directions, win! Anyways, we got to the bar and there actually were a few people already lined up outside to go in. Not that there was a wait, just that there were that many people trying to get in. At this point is when Chris and I start pulling out our ID and I tell Julianne to, to which she responds that she didn't bring it.
----- Side Side Note: I have done this. -----
So now we're standing outside of a crowded bar, looking at two large bouncers holding a thin chain across the doorway, wondering what to do. My first thought is that we're going to have to all walk back up the hill, while Chris starts saying we can just take a collectivo up there and then take another one back down. I'm obviously against this idea because this involves spending money, something I'm not apt to do. After a little bit of rapid talk back and forth, I told Julianne to just go up to the bouncer, and explain, in her best, stilted Spanish/English combo that she forgot her ID and can she please go in anyways, hoping that being a cute girl will excuse the fact that she's very short, thus doesn't look of age (sorry). Chris and I stood back while she started walking up to the door, and simultaneously as she started getting close to the bouncer, he turned around and started arguing with someone behind him. All attention was focused inward, away from where Julianne needed to be going, and the bouncer was holding the chain out from the door, Julianne glanced back at me and I immediately gestured for her to just go in. In retrospect, we're badasses, because she totally pulled this off, turning and walking into the bar without a complaint (good job Julianne). Like a fucking movie, as she walked in the doorway, the bouncer turned around in such a way that he always had his back to her and replaced the chain blocking the doorway. Chris and I (along with a random stranger standing behind us) all started laughing, and we made our way into the bar.
Julianne's pro sneaking into the bar was pretty much the highlight of the night for us though, since no one else we knew showed up. Instead, it was me, Julianne, Chris, and at one point a random friend of Chris', Matt. We talked and drank (although Julianne decided to waste a perfectly good Pisco Sour). It was pretty fun, but since no one else we knew came, I could tell that things would be getting relatively boring pretty fast. Chris got up to go attempt to talk to Chileans, and I almost joined him, but I decided that leaving Julianne alone with some guy we don't know when she doesn't speak Spanish would kind of suck, since he might end up to bore the hell out of her or something. After a little while, Julianne wanted to leave, which I was pretty okay with, since no one else was there and Chris was off mingling. At first one of her host brothers who was there offered to walk her home, but I said I could do it, since once she left I wouldn't have anyone to talk to anyways. First we went to find Eric to tell him that he wouldn't have to bring her home, but Julianne and I got separated (it was ridiculously packed by now) as I went to look at the bar and she went into a back room. Eventually we found each other in the crowd and managed to get out (it literally took like, 4 minutes to travel 5 yards, with me pushing through the crowd aggressively). The walk back wasn't terrible, although a 15 minute long uphill walk after a liter of beer is a little bit difficult. Once I got home, I think I went straight to bed, although I might not have, once again, I'm a few days late on writing this, so the details are a little bit hazy. It was actually pretty cloudy for most of the day today, but the sun did eventually come out.
Second Day of Class, Not much Going on
16 March 2010, Tuesday
Today was my second day of class, which started a little bit later than the other one, which is at 9:45. This class didn't start until 11:15, so I got to sleep in. Cecilia made me a little sandwich and gave me a juice box (as she did yesterday, and I think will be doing every day) before I left. I made it to class with little event, although our classroom did change. As a result, group 2 got to chat with group 1 a little bit, as they had just finished class before we were entering. We had a new girl in class today, I don't remember her name, but she came down a level from the French group (I think). I may or may not have accidentally set the seating configuration for the semester, because I walked into class first and chose a desk in the second row, right in the middle of the row. As a result, Anna and Trenton sat in the two desks to my right, and Sarina and the French girl sat in the two across the aisle in the same row. We basically did a little bit of a summary of what the course would be, introductions, etc. Not much to mention at the moment.
After class, again, we walked down to the bus stop then separated out from there. Sometimes the conversation is in all German, because Anna, Sarina, and Trenton all speak German (Trenton isn't from Germany, but he studied abroad there and speaks pretty fluently from what I can tell). I try to go unnoticed during these times, because I actually do enjoy listening to the conversation, even if I am not comprehending anything; at the same time, I know that they're going to end up switching to English or Spanish on my account. I could take the bus home, but it costs 200 pesos, and it's not like I'm trying to get home to get anything done, I may as well enjoy the weather and the exercise while it's still comfortable. Once I got home I think I pretty much just sat around all day. Not much is going on right now, since people are getting used to classes, etc. I keep strongly contemplating going to the gym, but thus far I haven't built up the effort. Oh, and the weather was awesome again today.
Today was my second day of class, which started a little bit later than the other one, which is at 9:45. This class didn't start until 11:15, so I got to sleep in. Cecilia made me a little sandwich and gave me a juice box (as she did yesterday, and I think will be doing every day) before I left. I made it to class with little event, although our classroom did change. As a result, group 2 got to chat with group 1 a little bit, as they had just finished class before we were entering. We had a new girl in class today, I don't remember her name, but she came down a level from the French group (I think). I may or may not have accidentally set the seating configuration for the semester, because I walked into class first and chose a desk in the second row, right in the middle of the row. As a result, Anna and Trenton sat in the two desks to my right, and Sarina and the French girl sat in the two across the aisle in the same row. We basically did a little bit of a summary of what the course would be, introductions, etc. Not much to mention at the moment.
After class, again, we walked down to the bus stop then separated out from there. Sometimes the conversation is in all German, because Anna, Sarina, and Trenton all speak German (Trenton isn't from Germany, but he studied abroad there and speaks pretty fluently from what I can tell). I try to go unnoticed during these times, because I actually do enjoy listening to the conversation, even if I am not comprehending anything; at the same time, I know that they're going to end up switching to English or Spanish on my account. I could take the bus home, but it costs 200 pesos, and it's not like I'm trying to get home to get anything done, I may as well enjoy the weather and the exercise while it's still comfortable. Once I got home I think I pretty much just sat around all day. Not much is going on right now, since people are getting used to classes, etc. I keep strongly contemplating going to the gym, but thus far I haven't built up the effort. Oh, and the weather was awesome again today.
First Day of Class, Av. Valparaiso, Secret Agent Alberto, Exploring with Mai+Julianne
15 March 2010, Monday
Today was my first day of classes, or I guess I should say class. After about a 15 minute walk, I arrived at the UVM campus on Diego Portales. I had to ask around to find out where my classroom was, since it was wedged into a small room in the corner, and didn't really have any number so to speak of. Trenton and Anna were already there, but Sarina hadn't shown up yet. We talked a little bit about how everything was going, how the power outage last night was, etc. Pretty soon, our teacher showed up and we started class. It seems like we're mostly going to be going over grammar, writing skills, etc. Not much to say about class so far, erm, oh yeah, Sarina did show up, just a little bit late is all.
After class, the other students and I walked together towards the bus stop, I parted ways with them there and started walking towards Av. Valparaiso. I had brought the non-functioning game boy adapter with me and was planning to go find the store and return it. Finding the store could have been a problem, since Chris was pretty much leading the way whenever we went the first time, so I wasn't sure I would find it again. Turns out subconscious memory is pretty good, because I found the store with no problems at all. I couldn't return the adapter for cash, as I had hoped, so I ended up trading it for a camera case that I don't need and some more batteries. I then went in search of the area where I was told I should look to find such an adapter. I called my host mom and asked her to look for the address, which I had left at home, and she found it and told it to me. As I was writing it down, I looked up and saw that I was already standing there. I went into what was kind of like an indoor strip mall, and the first four stores were all gaming stores. It only took two tries to find the adapter, success! Now I was broke, so I went towards a bank that I had seen earlier to get some money out of the ATM. While I was standing there waiting in line behind someone, I looked out the glass doors of the bank to see, to my surprise, Alberto standing outside of the story waiting to see if I would notice him (I presume). At this point I started to wonder if he was in more than just the investigations department of the police, maybe he's a retired spy just waiting to be reactivated?
At any rate, I went out and said hi and joined him for whatever he was doing, which was getting a few groceries, bread, etc. We chatted as we walked around the street, him explaining how the Av. Valparaiso is where everything is in Vina, except for the mall. As we walked, we ran into 3 friends of his, all ex-police as well. One of them was 88 years old, but he seemed as spry and lucid as a 60 year old. I can only hope that I'll hold up so well as I age. We took the bus home, and soon after arriving Cecilia made us lunch. I didn't have any other class for the rest of the day, so I went upstairs and plugged in my DS charger, then finished reading a book I had started on the plane and have been working through since then. Julianne instant messaged me on Skype and asked if I wanted to go with her and Mai (another girl who's going to UVM, she's in the same group as Julianne) to “explore.” I said sure, and met them at around 4 or so, I don't really remember what time. Julianne walked down the hill and met Mai at the school bus stop, which is right next to the popular bar here, Cafe Journal. We walked to Av. Valparaiso and pretty much started taking the exact same walk as I had done this morning, but with stopping to take pictures outside of bakeries and such. The longest stop of the trip was in a Chilean clothing store (actually Chilean clothing, not U.S. made). The prices were ridiculously cheap for girl's blouses, so Mai and Julianne sifted through them while I offered helpful(?) advice. Julianne ended up buying one blouse, in the midst of flirting with yet another sexy Chilean man. I feel bad for guys here who are trying to pick up women, because the competition is fierce. We walked home, Mai separating from Julianne and I a little bit before Cafe Journal because she lives in the other direction. Once I got home, there were only a couple hours until dinner, so I took this precious time to start feverishly playing game boy. Not much else happened today, that I can remember... I'm typing this entry on Thursday, so hopefully my memory isn't inaccurate. Oh, and the weather was fantastic again today.
Today was my first day of classes, or I guess I should say class. After about a 15 minute walk, I arrived at the UVM campus on Diego Portales. I had to ask around to find out where my classroom was, since it was wedged into a small room in the corner, and didn't really have any number so to speak of. Trenton and Anna were already there, but Sarina hadn't shown up yet. We talked a little bit about how everything was going, how the power outage last night was, etc. Pretty soon, our teacher showed up and we started class. It seems like we're mostly going to be going over grammar, writing skills, etc. Not much to say about class so far, erm, oh yeah, Sarina did show up, just a little bit late is all.
After class, the other students and I walked together towards the bus stop, I parted ways with them there and started walking towards Av. Valparaiso. I had brought the non-functioning game boy adapter with me and was planning to go find the store and return it. Finding the store could have been a problem, since Chris was pretty much leading the way whenever we went the first time, so I wasn't sure I would find it again. Turns out subconscious memory is pretty good, because I found the store with no problems at all. I couldn't return the adapter for cash, as I had hoped, so I ended up trading it for a camera case that I don't need and some more batteries. I then went in search of the area where I was told I should look to find such an adapter. I called my host mom and asked her to look for the address, which I had left at home, and she found it and told it to me. As I was writing it down, I looked up and saw that I was already standing there. I went into what was kind of like an indoor strip mall, and the first four stores were all gaming stores. It only took two tries to find the adapter, success! Now I was broke, so I went towards a bank that I had seen earlier to get some money out of the ATM. While I was standing there waiting in line behind someone, I looked out the glass doors of the bank to see, to my surprise, Alberto standing outside of the story waiting to see if I would notice him (I presume). At this point I started to wonder if he was in more than just the investigations department of the police, maybe he's a retired spy just waiting to be reactivated?
At any rate, I went out and said hi and joined him for whatever he was doing, which was getting a few groceries, bread, etc. We chatted as we walked around the street, him explaining how the Av. Valparaiso is where everything is in Vina, except for the mall. As we walked, we ran into 3 friends of his, all ex-police as well. One of them was 88 years old, but he seemed as spry and lucid as a 60 year old. I can only hope that I'll hold up so well as I age. We took the bus home, and soon after arriving Cecilia made us lunch. I didn't have any other class for the rest of the day, so I went upstairs and plugged in my DS charger, then finished reading a book I had started on the plane and have been working through since then. Julianne instant messaged me on Skype and asked if I wanted to go with her and Mai (another girl who's going to UVM, she's in the same group as Julianne) to “explore.” I said sure, and met them at around 4 or so, I don't really remember what time. Julianne walked down the hill and met Mai at the school bus stop, which is right next to the popular bar here, Cafe Journal. We walked to Av. Valparaiso and pretty much started taking the exact same walk as I had done this morning, but with stopping to take pictures outside of bakeries and such. The longest stop of the trip was in a Chilean clothing store (actually Chilean clothing, not U.S. made). The prices were ridiculously cheap for girl's blouses, so Mai and Julianne sifted through them while I offered helpful(?) advice. Julianne ended up buying one blouse, in the midst of flirting with yet another sexy Chilean man. I feel bad for guys here who are trying to pick up women, because the competition is fierce. We walked home, Mai separating from Julianne and I a little bit before Cafe Journal because she lives in the other direction. Once I got home, there were only a couple hours until dinner, so I took this precious time to start feverishly playing game boy. Not much else happened today, that I can remember... I'm typing this entry on Thursday, so hopefully my memory isn't inaccurate. Oh, and the weather was fantastic again today.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Lunch, Jogging in Place, and Blackouts
14 March 2010, Sunday
Today it was a little bit cooler outside, but still quite comfortable. The day started out pretty slow, we didn't have lunch until 2, mostly because everyone sleeps in really late on Sundays here. We had steak with fried egg on top, with fried potatoes and onions, which makes a delicious combination, for reference. I also tried for the first time sprite, but with added lemon, and it's pretty awesome. Not much went on today, partly because there's not really anywhere to go when everything is closed on Sunday, and partly because I'm just getting ready to start school tomorrow. My first class will be tomorrow at 9:45 in the morning, and I think it's my only class for the day. I basically sat around the house all day until dinner time, but right before dinner Julianne was trying to get me to go jogging since she didn't want to go alone. I agreed, but only if we walked toward the beach, and only if I could walk while she jogged next to me. We made it not too far before I realized that the sun would be down by the time we got to the beach, and since half the point of going to the beach was to watch a Chilean sunset, I decided to turn around. Julianne was cool with this, because then she could jog uphill. I was between very and extremely confident that she was just begging for us to get mugged by jogging through somewhat sketchy neighborhoods wearing standard US jogging attire. It was cool though, because since she was jogging ahead of me, I could just run away and they wouldn't even notice me. Of course, I would never do that, I would protect her from danger like a good person... In the end, we didn't get mugged, which is good. She followed me up to my host family's house, which is up the hill from hers, as part of her plan to exercise more and to “get her heart rate going.” My host mom offered her something to drink, and she hung out for a while and made fun of my scarf (which is hanging next to my dresser). She was also kind enough to mock me for having a small laptop. When we went downstairs so she could leave, there were three people in the sitting room of my family's house, so we introduced ourselves and enjoyed an awkward moment where I had no idea who these people were. I offered to walk Julianne home, but she refused rather adamantly, so I accepted it. Well, I accepted it until she walked out of the gate and went in the complete wrong direction.
The walk didn't take long, it was the walk back that was fun. As I started walking back, probably 20 seconds after I left Julianne at her doorstep, a dog on the street (a poodle, no less) started staring at me. I didn't think anything of it, because there are stray dogs staring at you all the time here, but then all the lights on the street went out. Just like a horror film or something, the moment the lights went out, the dog started barking viciously at me. I decided to just keep walking and avoid challenging the dog in what it seemed to think was its territory. It followed me for a little over a block, barking and snarling a foot away from me, but eventually it felt less threatened and went on its merry way. Beyond that, I got home without much problem, and it was then that I discovered that the lights in the whole city had gone out. I had been a little bit confused, because it didn't really make sense to turn off the street lights at night. I sat down at the dinner table where my parents and their friends had gathered, and after listening to the conversation for a while, along with the radio, I found out that the entire country was without power. Obviously, it took me a while to understand, and eventually I just asked, “todo el pais esta sin poder?” Everyone nodded and said yes, yes, the whole country doesn't had power. I had to actually ask, because I couldn't believe that such a huge country could simultaneously lose power like that in every city. Alberto's friend (I don't remember his name) explained that the whole country was broken up into 4 power districts, and that one of them was the main district, and that if it failed the whole system would break down. I didn't really understand how this could work, so I asked if this was nationalized power, but they said no, it is in the private sector. Later I found out, or at least at the time of this writing it's what everyone is saying, that there was too much demand and drain on the system, so the whole thing just shut down. I'm actually writing this in the dark right now, although we do have power, everyone has been advised to save energy and to not turn on too many lights and so on. So thus far we've had earthquakes, tsunamis, and power outages, enough so that Cecilia, Alberto, and their friends were joking around at the dinner table about how Chris and I have experienced every disaster possible here.
Today it was a little bit cooler outside, but still quite comfortable. The day started out pretty slow, we didn't have lunch until 2, mostly because everyone sleeps in really late on Sundays here. We had steak with fried egg on top, with fried potatoes and onions, which makes a delicious combination, for reference. I also tried for the first time sprite, but with added lemon, and it's pretty awesome. Not much went on today, partly because there's not really anywhere to go when everything is closed on Sunday, and partly because I'm just getting ready to start school tomorrow. My first class will be tomorrow at 9:45 in the morning, and I think it's my only class for the day. I basically sat around the house all day until dinner time, but right before dinner Julianne was trying to get me to go jogging since she didn't want to go alone. I agreed, but only if we walked toward the beach, and only if I could walk while she jogged next to me. We made it not too far before I realized that the sun would be down by the time we got to the beach, and since half the point of going to the beach was to watch a Chilean sunset, I decided to turn around. Julianne was cool with this, because then she could jog uphill. I was between very and extremely confident that she was just begging for us to get mugged by jogging through somewhat sketchy neighborhoods wearing standard US jogging attire. It was cool though, because since she was jogging ahead of me, I could just run away and they wouldn't even notice me. Of course, I would never do that, I would protect her from danger like a good person... In the end, we didn't get mugged, which is good. She followed me up to my host family's house, which is up the hill from hers, as part of her plan to exercise more and to “get her heart rate going.” My host mom offered her something to drink, and she hung out for a while and made fun of my scarf (which is hanging next to my dresser). She was also kind enough to mock me for having a small laptop. When we went downstairs so she could leave, there were three people in the sitting room of my family's house, so we introduced ourselves and enjoyed an awkward moment where I had no idea who these people were. I offered to walk Julianne home, but she refused rather adamantly, so I accepted it. Well, I accepted it until she walked out of the gate and went in the complete wrong direction.
The walk didn't take long, it was the walk back that was fun. As I started walking back, probably 20 seconds after I left Julianne at her doorstep, a dog on the street (a poodle, no less) started staring at me. I didn't think anything of it, because there are stray dogs staring at you all the time here, but then all the lights on the street went out. Just like a horror film or something, the moment the lights went out, the dog started barking viciously at me. I decided to just keep walking and avoid challenging the dog in what it seemed to think was its territory. It followed me for a little over a block, barking and snarling a foot away from me, but eventually it felt less threatened and went on its merry way. Beyond that, I got home without much problem, and it was then that I discovered that the lights in the whole city had gone out. I had been a little bit confused, because it didn't really make sense to turn off the street lights at night. I sat down at the dinner table where my parents and their friends had gathered, and after listening to the conversation for a while, along with the radio, I found out that the entire country was without power. Obviously, it took me a while to understand, and eventually I just asked, “todo el pais esta sin poder?” Everyone nodded and said yes, yes, the whole country doesn't had power. I had to actually ask, because I couldn't believe that such a huge country could simultaneously lose power like that in every city. Alberto's friend (I don't remember his name) explained that the whole country was broken up into 4 power districts, and that one of them was the main district, and that if it failed the whole system would break down. I didn't really understand how this could work, so I asked if this was nationalized power, but they said no, it is in the private sector. Later I found out, or at least at the time of this writing it's what everyone is saying, that there was too much demand and drain on the system, so the whole thing just shut down. I'm actually writing this in the dark right now, although we do have power, everyone has been advised to save energy and to not turn on too many lights and so on. So thus far we've had earthquakes, tsunamis, and power outages, enough so that Cecilia, Alberto, and their friends were joking around at the dinner table about how Chris and I have experienced every disaster possible here.
The beach, mocking Francesca, the mall, and failing to take the bus
13 March 2010, Saturday
Today the weather was quite nice all day, around 63-67 degrees and sunny, with a nice cool breeze. I forced myself to sleep in today, although my body was trying to get me to wake up at 9:30. I managed to stay sleeping until past noon, which was actually a challenge. I think the healthy food is encouraging my body to do more things, I hope not though. I had lunch with my family and older sister Cecilia, but we call her Chi Chi. Francesca is out of town, along with Chris, so it was just the 4 of us. Once again, the food was delicious (I might need to stop writing that and just say that there was food, since by now it is assumed that the food is awesome). We talked about various things, and there was a lot of storytelling going on between Alberto, Chi Chi, and Cecilia. Alberto told a story about how he got lost in the middle of the sea/lake, but was rescued by two surfers. He said that he had been calmly floating in the water when he realized that he had gone too far out, and would be unable to swim back to shore, instead of panicking, he simply waited for rescue. I eventually realized that this story was prompted because the family was talking about how Francesca reacted to her hamster being chased by the dog, covering her eyes and ears with her hands and saying “no no no papa no no” or something along those lines. Apparently she did the same thing when her dad was floating out at sea, when a friend of hers hit a dog while driving, and so on. I'm glad to see that this family also makes fun of each other, although I'm sad that Francesca wasn't there for the mockery.
After lunch, I waited around for a while, trying to decide when I would be willing to make the effort to go to town and return my non-functioning gameboy charger. Julianne told me that she needed to get a cell phone, so I invited her to come along, since I needed to go to the mall anyways. She said sure, but she was waiting to see when her brothers were going to the beach, because she was supposed to go with them. After a few hours, we ended up rushing out to the beach around 4, meeting up with several other UVM students, all of whom were French. We mostly just laid out on the beach, because it was way to cold to swim (although I did go stand in the water, which was quite refreshing). After hanging around there for an hour or two, Julianne and I took a bus to the mall. We grabbed some freaking wonderful churros con manjar on the way (an awesome decision by Julianne). The mall was pretty crowded, I guess because it was Saturday. First, we went into a store that I thought was the same one where I got my cell phone, but apparently it wasn't. They also had cell phones, but they were more expensive than the one I got, so we decided to go to another store. I asked about getting a DSi charger, but they said I had to go to another store (lame). We searched around for a while, and ended up deciding to come back on Thursday, when one of the stores said that they would have the same model that I bought. This is where the fun began.
We left the mall around 9, so it had just gotten dark out. We went to wait where I thought the bus we needed to take would come, but it didn't seem like it was coming. After waiting for a few minutes, I asked some other people if our buses came here, and they said yes. After about, 30 minutes, I was getting impatient/nervous and starting to feel guilty, since Julianne had to rely on me to get us home. I called my host mom, and she told me that we were in the right spot, but that we could also take a colectivo home if it had the number 7 on it. Long story short, after asking many other people where to go, I decided that we should go to the mall and look for a map (I had forgotten mine). On the way to the mall, Julianne spotted a colectivo #7, but we missed it, so we just waited near were that one was. Eventually another one came by, so we took it and actually managed to get home, hooray! The best part, the colectivo literally only cost us a dollar each, transportation is crazy cheap here. Oh, and by the way, Julianne wanted to walk both to the mall and to walk home from the mall, because she's crazy. Once we got out of the colectivo, Julianne and I parted our separate ways to get home. In retrospect, I probably should have been a little more gentlemanly and walked her home, but instead (she later told me) she had to run home. Moral of the story, I made an ass of myself today, hooray, but at least we didn't get mugged or stabbed. Speaking of getting stabbed, Julianne obviously doesn't know me very well, because she said that she didn't bring her mace that she normally carries, because she was going to have me for protection. Haha, yeah, right. I told her that I would probably run away if someone attacked us, so I just earned a lot of manliness points today. When I got home my whole family was out, but dinner was waiting for me on the table (awesome). I went upstairs and wasted some time on the internet for a while before going to sleep pretty late, so all in all I guess the day was a success?
Today the weather was quite nice all day, around 63-67 degrees and sunny, with a nice cool breeze. I forced myself to sleep in today, although my body was trying to get me to wake up at 9:30. I managed to stay sleeping until past noon, which was actually a challenge. I think the healthy food is encouraging my body to do more things, I hope not though. I had lunch with my family and older sister Cecilia, but we call her Chi Chi. Francesca is out of town, along with Chris, so it was just the 4 of us. Once again, the food was delicious (I might need to stop writing that and just say that there was food, since by now it is assumed that the food is awesome). We talked about various things, and there was a lot of storytelling going on between Alberto, Chi Chi, and Cecilia. Alberto told a story about how he got lost in the middle of the sea/lake, but was rescued by two surfers. He said that he had been calmly floating in the water when he realized that he had gone too far out, and would be unable to swim back to shore, instead of panicking, he simply waited for rescue. I eventually realized that this story was prompted because the family was talking about how Francesca reacted to her hamster being chased by the dog, covering her eyes and ears with her hands and saying “no no no papa no no” or something along those lines. Apparently she did the same thing when her dad was floating out at sea, when a friend of hers hit a dog while driving, and so on. I'm glad to see that this family also makes fun of each other, although I'm sad that Francesca wasn't there for the mockery.
After lunch, I waited around for a while, trying to decide when I would be willing to make the effort to go to town and return my non-functioning gameboy charger. Julianne told me that she needed to get a cell phone, so I invited her to come along, since I needed to go to the mall anyways. She said sure, but she was waiting to see when her brothers were going to the beach, because she was supposed to go with them. After a few hours, we ended up rushing out to the beach around 4, meeting up with several other UVM students, all of whom were French. We mostly just laid out on the beach, because it was way to cold to swim (although I did go stand in the water, which was quite refreshing). After hanging around there for an hour or two, Julianne and I took a bus to the mall. We grabbed some freaking wonderful churros con manjar on the way (an awesome decision by Julianne). The mall was pretty crowded, I guess because it was Saturday. First, we went into a store that I thought was the same one where I got my cell phone, but apparently it wasn't. They also had cell phones, but they were more expensive than the one I got, so we decided to go to another store. I asked about getting a DSi charger, but they said I had to go to another store (lame). We searched around for a while, and ended up deciding to come back on Thursday, when one of the stores said that they would have the same model that I bought. This is where the fun began.
We left the mall around 9, so it had just gotten dark out. We went to wait where I thought the bus we needed to take would come, but it didn't seem like it was coming. After waiting for a few minutes, I asked some other people if our buses came here, and they said yes. After about, 30 minutes, I was getting impatient/nervous and starting to feel guilty, since Julianne had to rely on me to get us home. I called my host mom, and she told me that we were in the right spot, but that we could also take a colectivo home if it had the number 7 on it. Long story short, after asking many other people where to go, I decided that we should go to the mall and look for a map (I had forgotten mine). On the way to the mall, Julianne spotted a colectivo #7, but we missed it, so we just waited near were that one was. Eventually another one came by, so we took it and actually managed to get home, hooray! The best part, the colectivo literally only cost us a dollar each, transportation is crazy cheap here. Oh, and by the way, Julianne wanted to walk both to the mall and to walk home from the mall, because she's crazy. Once we got out of the colectivo, Julianne and I parted our separate ways to get home. In retrospect, I probably should have been a little more gentlemanly and walked her home, but instead (she later told me) she had to run home. Moral of the story, I made an ass of myself today, hooray, but at least we didn't get mugged or stabbed. Speaking of getting stabbed, Julianne obviously doesn't know me very well, because she said that she didn't bring her mace that she normally carries, because she was going to have me for protection. Haha, yeah, right. I told her that I would probably run away if someone attacked us, so I just earned a lot of manliness points today. When I got home my whole family was out, but dinner was waiting for me on the table (awesome). I went upstairs and wasted some time on the internet for a while before going to sleep pretty late, so all in all I guess the day was a success?
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