Advertisement
Published: August 30th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Kiwi!
We went to a farm outside of town a few weeks ago and ate Kiwi straight of the vine...delicious Well hello to all!
As promised, I am really bad at keeping this blog updated, but don't worry my camera is on the way and then it will be easier to think of things to talk about!
Well I've just been kinda getting into the every day life here. I now have a Chilean ID card and student ID so I actually feel like I kind of belong here. Well, until I remember that I'm a really white kid with red hair and blue eyes walking through a country of dark complected, dark haired, dark eyed people! Some people have been wondering about what the reaction is to people from the United States here in Chile, and as a very obvious "gringo" I think I can offer some insight on that. First of all, the word "gringo" itself is not used offensively here. It is simply the easiest way to refer to somebody from the U.S. Chileans tend to use what we might consider offensive words to refer to people, usually based on some physical characteristic. For example it's not uncommon for a big person to be called "gordo", but it would be unnecessary to get upset about it.
Ping Pong
This is in my backyard playing Ping Pong with my brother. People here are obsessed with the game, its fun! A lot of chileans view folks from the U.S. as sort of uptight, reserved, rich, and scared. An unfortunate amount of people view us as targets - there is a lot of crime against tourists here, especially during the summer. But one thing that I have not experienced is somebody disliking me just because I'm from the U.S. Chileans are pretty timid people, and will hardly ever make the first move to meet you (unless they've had a couple of piscos), but I don't think its because of distaste but of shyness. Just about every Chilean I've met so far has been nice and I've enjoyed talking with them. Sometimes walking down the street is interesting because there are a lot of beggars, and they will hound the people who look like they have money more than anybody else, but you get used to it like anywhere else in the world.
The weather is starting to warm up, which makes me very happy! Its still pretty cold at night, but during the day the sun shines bright and I can walk around without a jacket.
I finally have my actual class schedule,
Fiesta
This is at the birthday party of one of the guys that lives in my neighborhood. I'm in the back center if you can't tell, haha. so here's what I'm taking this semester:
- "Identidad Latinoamericana y Chilena: Los desafíos de la Globalization" (Latin American and Chilean Identity: The challenges of Globalization)
- "Gramatica para extranjeros III" (Grammar for foreigners III)
- "Practicas y Discursos del Cuento Latinoamericano y Chileno Contemporaño" (Practices and Discourses of Contemporary Latin American and Chilean Stories)
- "Arte y Sociedad en Chile Prehispanico" (Pre-Hispanic Art and Society in Chile)
- "Danzas Tradicionales" (Traditional Dance)
So far the work load hasn't been to strenuous, the Cuentos class keeps me reading but thats about the worst of it.
Well, not sure what else to talk about, so I guess I'll call it a blog entry! I'm going to put up some more pictures that I stole from other people again, for hopefully the last time!
So long for now!
Michael
Advertisement
Tot: 0.072s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 9; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0459s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
David
non-member comment
Interesting
Nice to hear from you. Thanks for including us on your blog. I am sure you are experiencing culture shock. Hope you are finding it good and getting used to it. How is the language thing coming? Are you able to communicate with the locals yet? Eric just arrived today for Luke's wedding and to spend a week with us.