Blogs from Ñuñoa, Santiago Region, Chile, South America

Okay, so I took a 24 hour bus ride from Puerto Madryn to Mendoza. Unfortunately I couldnt spend any time there to look around because I had to catch a bus across the border to Santiago. So maybe I was tired or maybe I was just dumb but I really didn,t think about how to cross the border between argentina and chile you need to go through the Andes. So I took a nap on the bus and when I woke up instead of green vineyards and mountains in the background, there was literally snow flying through the window and landing on my face!! That was quite a shock but a cool one because we were at the border then and everybody had to get out and go through a ridiculous 10 million hour long process ... read more

good evening, let me firstly start with the score : Universidad de Chile 0 Universidad Catolica 2 I mention this at the start for a reason. Those who knew me from days of going to watch Celtic, were always aware that if there was an early goal at the game, I would have missed it. This was down to always leaving the pub too late !!! This evening was the reverse. To avoid any crush and trouble after the game, we legged it with 5 minutes to go, and guess what ????? We missed the second goal scored in the last minute !!!! Anyway, we arrived at the ground early to find our seats. Watching football in Chile is interesting. Your ticket provides the row and number of your seat, but not the gate number to ... read more

As predicted, it's been a frustrating two weeks. I arrived in Santiago on Sunday, February 13 after an uncomfortable flight (American Airlines apparently puts their oldest, most crowded planes on the South American routes). For the first two weeks here, I've been taking intensive language classes and staying with a teacher from the school. Meanwhile, I've been frantically looking for a place to live for the rest of the year, which is far easier said than done. I don't love Santiago yet. There is a lot of good and a lot of bad. In short, the jury is still out. Here is the short list... SANTIAGO: The Good - It's a cool city! There is art, music, culture, etc. It's pretty here, more or less. Think sort of European Architecture with a weird Mexican influence. The ... read more

Well I should probably start by apologizing to the great masses that I'm sure were about to riot about the lack of a recent blog post. And I am currently packing for my Easter Break trip to Mendoza, Argentina, so this will have to be quick. We have made some observations recently that I feel might be blog worthy, the first being the prevalence of mullets I have seen walking around in downtown Santiago. I realize that up until recently I was in no position to talk about bad hair, but lets be honest, if anybody who is reading this thinks I had a bad haircut after seeing three guys walking in front of you with deadlocked mullets, you seriously need to re-evaluate your standards. I also saw a man the other day with a shaved ... read more

Well it has been over two weeks since the earthquake, but the aftershocks are still hitting pretty regularly. They haven’t done any damage that I can see so far, and they aren’t nearly as scary, just kind of annoying. We have had four so far today, the biggest registering at 7.2, which was not fun at all as I was on the 17th story of our academic building. The buildings here are all built to withstand them, and there was no damage, it is scary but it’s just a part of life here. Earthquakes might be part of their culture, but I’m almost as tired of talking about them as experiencing them. So moving on to some less depressing/natural disaster topics, I started some of my classes this past week. Through the IFSA program I ... read more

Yeah, Santiago is great so far. I'v only been here for two days but I love the city, It's a lot like being back home, I don't stick like the only white person, and restaurant and stores have change when you buy things. The only problem though is the hole currency thing. One US dollar is about 550 Chilean Pesos, which is a little complicated to figure out. The subway is really cheep, 300 pesos, 470 during rush hour, but its clean, like really clean, so much better than NYC. Its also really crowded, though, all the time. The city reminds me of New York a lot, just cleaner, which more construction, at least the parts of the city I'v been in, the old city might be a little different, only saw the edge of it ... read more

Tonight we leave on a wonderful adventure. Classes are over, so two other girls from the program and I are taking a week and a little bit to explore the country south of Santiago. We're taking an overnight bus to Pucón, a small tourist town near Lago Villarica and Volcán Villarica about 10 hours southwest of Santiago; I'm not sure how many miles or kilometers. We don't have a definite plan. It's going to be something like 2 or 3 days in Pucón, 2 or 3 days in and around Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas, a coupe days on Isla de Chiloé, and maybe some time further south in Chaitén or Coyhaique. We'll see what we actually have time for. I'll try to keep you updated and all, but my internet access will be sporadic at ... read more