Dani's Surprise Party

Pucón, Chile! With Volcán Villarrica in the background

This weekend, Kyle and I were supposed to go to Pucón. Pucón is a town approximately 9.5 hours (by bus) south of Santiago. You could fly, but it’s also about 1 hour from the closest airport and the bus is $230 cheaper. Since neither of us have Friday or Monday classes, Kyle and I decided our best move was to take a bus through the night on Thursday into Friday morning, arrive Friday and then leave super late on Sunday night and arrive back in the city Monday morning. Pucon’s claim to fame is the opportunity to hike Volcan Villarrica, one of the most active volcanoes in Chile.  Kyle LIVES for outdoorsy adventures like that and I was just as excited. Some other kids from our group had already done it and couldn't say enough good things about it. We woke up Thursday morning really excited with all of our reservations set, our bags packed and knowing we just had to get through one class that afternoon before heading to the bus.

Tur Bus - Our soon-to-be transportation

            But then, I decided to check the weather. The weather in Pucón was a predicted high of 49 degrees F with 100% chance of rain….for all 3 days we were going to be there. That would have been miserable regardless of our plans but the fact that that cancelled any inkling of a prayer we had at hiking the volcano was a HUGE bummer. So, in a matter of about 1.5 hours, Kyle and I raced downtown to the bus station to see if we could switch our tickets to the following weekend where the weather was predicted to be sunny and 68 F. After being granted the switch, we contacted our hotel to change that reservation for the following weekend and contacted the tour company that was going to bring us up the volcano. All parties involved had no problem switching our reservations and were in agreement that we made the right choice in doing so.

            When we went to change our bus tickets, we were originally told that we’d only get an 85% refund and we’d have the pay the difference for the new tickets. It wasn’t ideal but with a much better weather forecast AND a more likely opportunity to hike the volcano next weekend, we decided we’d just suck it up. However, when we got up to the ticket agent who was going to change our reservations, he not only gave us a 100% refund and switched the reservation flawlessly, but afterwards he handed us $15 in cash because our new tickets were cheaper than our originals!

That's Dani!

In addition to all our good luck with the trip changes, we also made it to a surprise party we originally had to decline! Emily had decided to host a surprise party for her roommate and our good friend, Dani, this weekend. Her birthday is this upcoming Thursday but to throw her off, Emily planned the party early. Originally, we obviously weren’t going to be able to make it but due to the changes, we were! The party was last night and it was a lot of fun. There was a really entertaining group of people in attendance from Loyola students to GW students to Chileans. Emily and I took her out to dinner to a new sushi restaurant near their apartment while Kyle and Emily’s boyfriend Nico snuck into the girls’ apartment to decorate and wait for the other guests. When we got back from dinner, Dani walked through the door and she was SO surprised, it was fantastic! Emily and I spent a lot of time Friday shopping and preparing for the party and Dani’s reaction made it all the more worth it!

            I’ve been checking the weather in Pucón for this upcoming weekend every morning and it’s changed every day (surprise, surprise). Fingers crossed it’ll be that sunny and 68 we were hoping for!

Los Chilenos

The people of Chile are some of the most incredible and awe-inspiring people I have ever met. Everyone that I have come across has been so noticeably kind and genuine. My program director here told us on our first day that the one thing we would have to know about Chileans is that they are curious. And she was so spot on! All of the Chilean students in my classes come right up to me to ask me questions. Where in the U.S. do I live? What do I study? Where in Chile do I live? Do I like it? How does Chile compare to the U.S.? Do I need help practicing my Spanish? Do I want to go out at night with them? My personal favorite, which I’ve been asked at least 4 times is: "Is your university anything like [the movie] American Pie?" I’ve seen legitimate shock and disappointment when I tell them no, not exactly.  

            I’ve received more Facebook friend requests in my first week of classes than I probably did in the entirety of last year. I get embarrassed when speaking Spanish in front of large groups (especially people my own age) because my American accent shines through like no other. They don’t care though – as long as I’m attempting to speak their language, they are patient and try their best to understand (and even occasionally will correct me in an attempt to help me out).  A lot of the Chilean students here want to practice their English so they want to be friends to help me with my Spanish in exchange for me to help them with their English. More than anything, they really want to make us feel comfortable so they invite us out, offer to help in any way possible, and go out of their way to smile and say hi on campus.

            Even my host parents, since day one, have treated me like their own flesh and blood. At the airport, Gaby was waiting with arms wide open to give me a hug and kiss on the cheek. At home, they are always asking me if I need anything, if I want them to buy a certain food, if I have enough of something, if I need help with anything at all. When I went to lunch at Emily’s boyfriend's house for the first time, his parents were the exact same way. Chileans love to be the host or hostess and want you to enjoy every experience you have with them as much as humanly possible. They will happily bend over backwards to personally ensure that that happens.

            Outside of the fact that people are generally way friendlier in Chile than in the U.S., there are other differences as well. For example, people frequently dance or do tricks at stop lights here in order to earn money. But they don’t beg for it or make you feel uncomfortable. They do their tricks and flips (some of which really are impressive) and just walk down the lane of cars, hoping someone is feeling generous. But they don’t go bothering anyone. Another place you’ll see people trying to make a living is at tollbooths on the highway. People literally set up camp on the platforms in front of tollbooths with fresh fruit, sandwiches, candy bars etc. offering to sell them to the people in line waiting to pay the toll. They are equally unobtrusive – just sitting and waiting patiently to make a sale.

            So far, the only unfortunate characteristic of the Chilean people (specifically boys my age) is the mullet. I’ve seen more mullets here than I’ve ever seen before and the worst part is a lot of them even have rat-tails in either a braid or in a single dread lock. It’s an unfavorable trend that hopefully will cease to exist soon. Other than that, I can’t think of a single complaint of anyone I’ve come into contact with since I've entered this extraordinary country!

Olivia Takes Chile

At the airport!

Last Saturday, one of my best friends in the world came to Chile! Olivia, Emily and I have been best friends for almost 10 years. Since day 1 we’ve been completely inseparable so it only seemed natural that Olivia would come visit us while Emily and I were here for the semester. It may sound like an outrageous spring break to most people, but to us it was simply completing the last part of the puzzle. It just made so much sense for us to be together. Luckily, Olivia was able to use frequent flyer miles to get here and was able to avoid having to stay at a hotel by staying at Emily’s apartment so that made this all that much easier. 

Exploring Valparaiso

            We had so much fun taking her all around the city and the surrounding areas. On her first night here, we took her to Viña del Mar, which she fell in love with just as quickly as Emily, Kyle and I had. Emily’s boyfriend has an apartment in Viña, which we stayed in, and he knew the area really well so he was able to take us all around Viña and Valparaiso far more efficiently than if just Emily or I took her. Back in the city, we took her to Cerro San Cristobal (the major hill in the middle of the city), Los Dominicos (the pueblito full of artisan crafts) and even to a few sushi restaurants. Fun fact: I consumed my first piece of sushi ever during that week. The verdict? It’s not that bad!

Olivia and Emily went on a beautiful nature hike

            Unfortunately, last week was my first full week of classes and Emily had her classes to attend as well so Olivia had to be a little flexible with what activities we could do when. But she was so great and understanding, it all worked out! We all managed to do something together every day – even if it was only for a few hours. It felt like we were back in Lexington, MA enjoying another high school summer.

At Emily's school concert!

            On Friday, Olivia’s last full day here, we attended a concert at Emily’s university. The day started at around 4 pm even though the concert didn’t start until 8. Everyone was just having fun on campus hanging out, drinking, eating, and meeting new people. It was such a different experience than any other “school-sponsored” activity I had ever been to in the U.S. People here are just so much more mature and can handle themselves far more appropriately so it’s okay for people to drink and party and it’s known that people won’t get into fights or get out of control. I didn’t recognize the bands that were playing, or any of the songs that they sang, but I had fun nonetheless. Even though the metro was closed when we left the concert and we ended up having to walk a long time to the next bus stop (we ended up jumping in a cab at the end), we made it home eventually and I still wouldn’t change anything about that day.

Old friends and new friends

          

  It was really hard having to say goodbye to Olivia at the airport but Emily and I are so grateful that she was able to make the trip here at all.  This experience has been so incredible to me and I love that I can say I was able to share it with my two best friends.

Universidad Alberto Hurtado

Last Thursday was the 1^st official day of classes at Universidad Alberto Hurtado, my Chilean university. I only had one class that day and had no classes Friday or today so I still feel like I’m on vacation mode. Tomorrow marks the start of reality because I will then have three days of classes in a row. Not that I can really complain since those three days of class are my only three days of class all week! I don’t mean to compare apples and oranges, but in Spain we were in class from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday. It was awful. I know we are supposed to be abroad for the whole purpose of actually studying but personally I find immersing yourself in a brand new culture, in a brand new city to be far more important and beneficial than sitting in your average classroom, identical to the one at home. After seven hours in the classroom plus homework hours plus volunteer hours, it was impossible to explore the city other than on the weekends we weren’t traveling, which were few and far between.

            Here in Santiago, my schedule will be three hours of class on Tuesday, three hours on Wednesday and three hours on Thursday. I’m taking three classes total at UAH (one per day) but since one of my courses is technically worth two and I’m taking travel reporting online, that makes a total of five classes all together.

Main building in the UAH courtyard

           

At some point volunteer work will be factored in (it is a program requirement as well as a component to one of my university classes) but that won’t be for another month or so. Even with all that, you get the picture that I have a lot more free time to explore all that Santiago and the surrounding area has to offer. I already feel like I know it better than I ever knew Madrid or Alcalá and I’ve been here less than a month!

            The class I had last Thursday is called Poverty and Development (Pobreza y Desarollo) and it examines and analyzes the question “is it possible to overcome poverty?”. The class will discuss poverty in Chile as well in other parts of the world. The first day all we  accomplished were our names, where we were from, and what we were studying but this Thursday will start to feel more like class because the professor has already assigned some readings for us to discuss. My professor's name is Isabel and I find her to be fantastic. She knows our exchange program inside and out and knows how to help the foreign students achieve success in her class because she used to be the program director! The way she talks slowly and restates things in various ways to fully ensure our understanding is super considerate and effective.

Chile has a really interesting system where at registration, you sign up for more classes than you need (I've yet to hear of a single person not getting into a class they wanted, which is extraordinary to me coming from Loyola!) Students then have about a month to attend (or not attend) as many of these classes as they want to simply "try them out". The administration here feels that it is important for you to make sure that you like the class content, that you can get along with the teacher, and that the rigor of the class won't be too difficult. After a month, you add/drop courses until you have a perfect schedule that fits your needs. It takes away a lot of stress like "Will I like the teacher? Will there be too much homework? Is this really what I'm interested in taking?" More to come with my first impressions of my other classes and professors and if this probationary system really works!

Viña del Mar

Viña Del Mar - Playa (Beach) Acapulco

Kyle and I spent the weekend about 2 hours away from Santiago in a city called Viña del Mar. It’s a total beach town, right on the coast and a lot of Chileans spend their entire summers there. This past weekend was the beginning of “shoulder season” meaning summer had JUST ended the weekend before so most people were back at work or in school but the weather was still perfect.

Playa El Sol (Sol = Sun) - On the other side of the pier from Playa Acapulco

            My host parents actually own an apartment there but they rent it out from March to November. I told them Kyle and I had booked a hotel and were looking at buses to get us there. They surprised me by offering to drive us there and back because as it turned out, they had a baptism to attend in Viña and were planning on driving down on Friday to spend the weekend with their family anyways. The bus is only about $20 round trip but the hassle that we saved by them driving us is immeasurable. The bus terminal is huge and confusing and just taking the metro to the bus station from my house takes about an hour itself. Needless to say, Kyle and I jumped at the opportunity to go with them and have them drop us off at the hotel's front door on Friday and pick us up at the same spot on Sunday.

            Our hotel was called Hotel Monterilla and it couldn’t have been in a better location. It was a 6 minute walk to the beach in one direction and a 6 minute walk into town in the other. There were tons of restaurants in the immediate area. Oddly enough, a majority of the people at this hotel were Americans. I found it particularly surprising just because it really is a small little area and I was surprised that many people knew about it, let alone made the trek out to actually visit.

            Kyle and I spent all day Saturday at the beach and came home to discover both of us were significantly sunburnt – even after using tons of sunscreen (I swear!) We bought some aloe at a local pharmacy and walked around looking for a nice place to eat dinner. We discovered Tierra de Fuego, an AMAZING restaurant situated on top of some rocks, right above the ocean. The view was impeccable and we made a 7:30 reservation to order in watch the sunset. We ended up loving the restaurant so much that we went BACK, 17 hours later, on Sunday for lunch! 

Enjoying a rooftop lunch at Tierra de Fuego

Sunday we made a quick trip to Valparaiso (another city about 15 minutes away by metro). Valpo is Chile’s biggest and most important port and while we thought it was interesting and that the houses were all pretty and colorful, Kyle and I both preferred Viña and made our way back after only a couple hours.

Valparaiso

Valparaiso

            Later that afternoon, my host parents picked us up (6 pm on the dot!) and we headed home. It seemed like we got home in half the time it took us to get there, an unfortunate feeling that I think a lot of people feel after leaving somewhere amazing. Orientation is continuing on this week until Thursday and then Thursday and Friday are the first two days of class!