La primera semana

So I'm not really one for blogging, but after many requests, I've decided to start a blog of my adventures here in Santiago, Chile. I arrived in Santiago one week ago and I had no idea what to expect. Upon clearing customs, there were suddenly dozens of people yelling at me in Spanish and asking if I wanted a taxi ride. I looked around and could not see the CIEE (my study abroad company) sign but I heard someone call my name. Luckily enough, one of the people who works for CIEE was waiting for me and had memorized what all of the participants look like.

There are 35 CIEE participants here in Santiago. Everyone attends a university in the US and most of the people are from the east coast. Of course, there are 3 Alisons and one Alice. We all spent one night in a hotel called Rent-A-Home and participated in a scavenger hunt to help us learn new words. The next day, our host families picked us up and took us to our respective homes. Yamile is my host mother. She is a single mother and has two sons, Diego (17) and Sebastian (11), and one daughter, Joana (23). The four of them live upstairs and I live downstairs. They are all very nice and and accomo

dating. I am their fourth foreign student. Yamile does not speak any English but her 3 children are learning it in school. The home of my host family is in a region of Santiago called Las Condes. My host mother makes

wonderful vegetarian food for me. They eat lots of bread here and she thinks that it is strange that I don't want to eat about 7 pieces every day. Dinner is very late (around 9pm) so they have "onces" which is like an afternoon tea and sandwich around 5pm.

So far, we have had orientation courses every day. CIEE provides a course called Contemporary Chile. The group meets every morning an

d we have guest lectures from the universities. The topics vary, and some are much more interesting and/or easier to understand than others. We take a break for lunch to eat our colación--the lunch that our host mother prepares for us. In the late afternoon, we walk or take the metro to see something new. So far, we went to the Plaza de Armas, Museo de Santiago, Mercado Central, and La Vega (a huge marketplace where people yell at you to buy their food).

Every day, I have to leave my house an hour before we meet for our class at the Univesidad de Chile. I walk a few blocks to the bus stop (the busses are called micros and don't stop unless you flag them down...definitely learned that the hard way) and then I take the micro the metro station. I take the metro for about 20 minutes to a stop near the Universidad and then I walk to our class. It is a big adventure to navigate the city and depend on public transporation. As they tell us, it is definitely best to avoid "las horas peak" when there are so many people trying to get onto the metro that you actually have to push and shove to get on...something that I am definitely not used to. To take public transportation, you have to have a "tarjeta bip." "Bip" is pronounced like beep because it beeps every time that you scan it and it beeps many times if you do not have enough money on it.

This past weekend, I discovered that people don't leave their houses very much during the winter. It is absolutely freezing inside most houses because there is usually no central heating system. The first night, my host mother gave me my sack lunch before bed. When I asked if it should be refrigerated, she said "Oh no, it is definitely cold enough in the house!" That made me laugh because I would never have thought of that. I don't really understand why peo

ple would want to stay home when it is just as cold, but I think it is because they don't want to leave their beds. We use "aquateros" which are rubber cases that you put boiling water in so that you can be warm in bed. Most houses also have "calefonts" which you have to light when you want to take a shower. Anyway, this past weekend I played lots of soccer with Seba, the little brother. He likes to

give me exams on my numbers and vocabulary, which are really quite helpful. I also went with some of my new friends from the program to explore. We went to Parque Forrestral which is a huge park where people go to walk, have picnics, parties, etc. We also went to el Museo de Bellas Artes and Castillo Santa Lucia. It is an ancient castle that was established when the city was founded. You can climb up to see the entire city. It is really amazing because the city is at sea level and the entire east is lined with snow-capped mountains that just seem to be looming

over us.

As for my Spanish, I can already tell that I can understand more. However, it is barely Spanish that they speak here and everyone speaks so quickly and quietly. It is a type of Castillano, but specific to Chile. There are so many "Chilenismos" that we had to spend a day learning the most important ones. Some of the most common ones are "cachai" (do you understand?) and "si poh" and "no poh" (yes/no, of course). One that makes us laugh is when they say "super!" (pronounded Sue-Pear with lots of enthusiasm) like "super bien!" or "super frío." They also say Ya (pronounced jaw) all the time instead of "yes." The b's and v's all sound the same when they talk and most of the time s's aren't even pronounced. It's good the they can always understand me, but it will definitely take a while for me to be able to speak the Chilean Spanish.

I'm having a wonderful time and I miss you all! I have internet in my home and the Skype connection is good so just let me know if you want to video chat!