Spring break travels

First of all I want to point out that while Americans consider themselves patriotic, they are not near as patriotic as Chileans. For the fourth of July we go watch fireworks, and sometimes have a picnic. In Chile, for September 18th, you take the whole week off, eat, drink, party, dance the Cueca (national dance), and watch fireworks several nights in a row. Hence, all students get a week off from school. So for my week off I traveled north to Valparaiso, Viña del Mar, and Santiago.

Unlike in the United States, bus travel in Chile is incredibly nice, and incredibly well used. The bus ride from Valdivia to Valparaiso was about 13hrs with a few stops in between. For the long haul routes such as this one you travel overnight. I was a little unlucky in that I happened to choose the bus company that stops in Viña del Mar first before Valparaiso. I didn't realize this so I got off and ended up having to take a taxi the rest of the way to Valparaiso (only about 15 minutes apart) which cost about $20, but it took me right to the house where I and several other program students were staying. Beautiful drive though. The house we stayed in was a little bit sketchy. It wasn't the cleanest, and the bathroom could have used some work. We all got to know each other a little more than we ever wanted, but it was only for three days, so it was tolerable. Here is the house:

Other than exploring the city, I was able to visit one of the many "lifts," or "funiculares," that give you a beautiful view of the city, the house of the famous poet Pablo Neruda, and El Museo Fancisco Fonk (actually located in Viña del Mar) which has artifacts from all over Latin America. The prize landmark is one of the few Moai heads from Easter Island (Isla de Pasqua) on mainland South America. One night I was also able to catch some fireworks from a hill near our house. Here are some more photos:

Being in Valparaiso reminded me a lot of being in Europe. The city is characterized by its European architecture, vibrant colors, wild artwork, and of course its hills:

As great as Valparaiso was, after three days I was ready for Santiago. I took a bus early Wednesday morning, got off at the station "Pajaritos," and took the metro to La Moneda, where my friend Pablo met me. He was staying with his brother not too far from there. What was awesome was that his brother lives in a high rise condominium so I was able to get some great rooftop photos of the city! Pablo accompanied me around Santiago and together we went to the Cerro San Cristobal (which we walked all the way up and down, taking about 30-45 minutes each way), Cerro Santa Lucia, La Moneda (the equivalent of the White House), La Plaza de Armas, and el Centro Constanera (the tallest building in South America). Being in Santiago was also the first time I was actually able to see the Andes mountains as I cannot see them from Valdivia.

Santiago from 27 floors up 

Pablo and I

El Centro from Cerro San Cristobal with the Andes behind

La Moneda

Cerro Santa Lucia

I originally was planning on returning from Valparaiso later in the week but ended up changing my plans to return with Pablo Wednesday night. The rest of the week I planned to spend with my Chilean friends. Unfortunately now I am a little sick and have been home in bed most of the weekend so I have missed out on those things. But I am lucky I decided to come home early! But other than being sick my first spring break was great!

My new life in Valdivia

I haven't written in a while so I figured it would be good to get back to it!

So I will have been in Valdivia for over 3 weeks now and things are increasingly getting better! While sitting in the airport in Dallas awaiting my flight to Santiago, I was a little nervous as I really didn't know what to expect. Part of me felt like it would just be easier if the whole thing were over and I could just know that it was good. Now, I already don't want to go home.

I must say I have been pleasantly surprised that I have experienced no culture shock and zero home-sickness. I have been quite content with my host family and lifestyle, and other than some minor differences, living in Chile is not all that different the United States.

I think I lucked out on the weather here too. It hasn't rained near as much as I thought it would. We have been blessed with some nice sunny days, a few of which have been a little bit warm! Several times I have had to take my jacket off while walking down the street. Even though I have to return to the dreaded cold winter in a few months, I am so glad that I don't have to experience it's slow and tedious arrival. Instead I get to experience spring and look forward to beautiful weather. It has been a treat seeing trees blooming during September.

Here are some other pictures of the city I have taken on our nice days.

As for my Spanish, it is certainly improving! I still have not yet reached the point where I can understand everything, nor do I expect to for another month or so. But while I am not able to always follow conversations, I have found I have been doing better at picking out the words that are being said instead of hearing one long blurb. As for communicating, I still have a hard time speaking at times. However, I don't expect it to feel natural until the very end of the program.

One of the biggest blessings I have had is the opportunity to plug in with some local churches here. I love the kids in my program, but I will admit that hanging around them can be spiritually draining at times. It is so nice to have a christian community, and have people that think the same way I do. At one of the churches I have connected with some of the youth, some of whom attend university and others high school.

This past weekend I had an excellent time at my new friend Pablo's house. Friday night we had a game night and we ate a bunch of snacks, sat around and talked, and played cards until 4am! The next day he took me to go play "futbol," or "soccer," with some of the church kids. I didn't last long. I quickly remembered why I didn't like it as a kid. But I spent quite a bit of time with his girlfriend talking and watching. Suffice it to say I am grateful to have made some good friends here. And I can assure you spending time with them has been helping my Spanish a lot.

I will have my next blog soon as next week we have our spring break, which is when Chile celebrates its Independence Day. It's a huge deal here. I will be going to Valparaiso for the week with some students from the program, and I hope to visit Santiago and a couple other locations that are all around there. More pictures and stories to come!