Involvement, School, and Travel

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Since my last entry there have been no out of the ordinary occurrences, but I have come a long way. I am still cannot decide whether I am going to return home with fluency or virtually no improvement in my Spanish. As I mentioned previously sometimes I can understand almost everything and in other situations I cannot understand a single word. I am still spending a lot of time with English speakers for which I feel guilty, but it is difficult to resist. Not only do I enjoy getting to know my classmates, but it often I have many things that I only know how to say in English.

One of the main reasons I chose to study abroad was to learn about a new culture. I have indeed learned a lot of cultural differences here in South America. However, in talking with my classmates I have also been given the chance to learn about the small regional differences between California and other states, or other countries. Sofie is from Sweden, and Achill is from Georgia .

Aside from the language difference the reasons why I have trouble associating with locals is because it is summer here. Many of the local university students are either on vacation or at work all day. Fortunately I have been making many attempts to expose myself to Spanish.

GETTING INVOLVED

Yesterday two of my friends and I volunteered at a foundation for children with cancer. This is something that was arranged by USAC . From now on Joey, Loren, and I will go to the foundation every Monday and Wednesday to play with the children. Yesterday was a good experience. We played monopoly with one of the children, Carlos. Although I could not understand everything Carlos was saying I am quite sure that he was not playing by the correct rules.

Since I was there to volunteer, while also hopefully improve my Spanish, I did not mind. However, I tried to explain to him that he was reading the incorrect price for “rent” on hotels. Either I made no sense or he did not care to listen. Considering that he is 12 or 13 years old I think that the latter may be the case. Regardless of this I thoroughly enjoyed our time there. Joey and Loren are also from Chico State, and fortunately they both make an effort to speak Spanish, even when we are alone.

After volunteering I ventured out to meet up with a running club whose coach I had contacted via email. This meant running three kilometers from my house to Escuela Militar, a military school nearby, to meet a group of people whom I had never seen before. I only partially knew where I was headed. I missed the turnoff and ran five minutes in the wrong direction.

Once I reached the school I came to the front gate which was manned by several men dressed in military attire. I approached them to ask if I needed to pay to enter. The guard looked a bit confused. I knew enough Spanish to explain that I was looking for the running team. He pointed me in the right direction. Upon arriving at the track I saw that there was little organization. Perhaps twenty people were running around the track, but in no apparent group.

I ran next to a man in his thirties and asked him if he was part of the RPM team. He said yes, and then asked me if I knew English. This is something that has happened often. I always feel slightly stupid because it probably means that my Spanish is terrible. This man, Sergio, had just joined the team. He is from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He pointed me in the direction of the coach, Rafael.

Meeting Rafael was the strangest experience I have had thus far. For the first ten or fifteen seconds he spoke to me I understood everything he was saying, but I had no idea if he was speaking in English or Spanish. I made a conscious effort to repeat the words to myself. To my amazement I realized that he was speaking in Spanish. I am quite sure he cannot speak English. This assumption was later reinforced when he attempted to explain to me that I needed to lift my knee higher, but he did not know the word for knee. Luckily I know that knee is rodilla .

SCHOOL

I have yet to mention much about school. That is because it is very easy. I only have the two classes. I see no reason why I should not get an “A” in both courses. Despite being easy I still view my Spanish class as very useful. Possibly more so than most of the courses I have taken at Chico State. My Spanish class is great, because there are just four students and the professor.

Due to the size of the class I have established a better personal relationship with both the other students and professor than I would in a larger class. For example, for class a couple of Fridays ago our professor, Lorena took Joey, Willie, Shane, and myself out to show us the Bellas Artes area of Santiago. We visited and had lunch at the Mercado Central . This is essentially a farmer’s market that primarily sells seafood.

Perhaps it is because we are exchange students, or maybe the culture truly is different, but I find that Lorena to be different than most professor in the States. In our day spent with her we almost forgot that we were with our professor, and not just a friend.

At lunch she insisted that I order a pisco sour. Piscos are popular Chilean alcoholic drinks. Usually professors do not want to hear about their students and alcohol. At home I cannot imagine a professor would be around a student drinking alcohol. Granted I am of drinking in Chile, but I still found it a little odd that my professor was ordering me alcohol.

Also, throughout the day Lorena pointed out all the homosexuals. We wanted to know how she knew. She said they wore certain colors, and she claimed that they wore tight fitting shirts. It was at this point that we began joking around with her much more so that we ever would with a professor. I reminded her of a conversation we had early in the day.

Lorena had been telling us that we needed to always wear sunscreen. For some reason one of us mentioned that we were playing soccer shirtless and without sunscreen. Lorena asked us why we did not wear shirts. Our answer was simple. Es necesario, there were girls there. She claimed that it was more attractive to wear a tight fitting shirt than it was for boys to be shirtless. Again, this is not something I was used to hearing from a professor.

So when Lorena said that homosexuals wore tight shirts I pointed out that early she had told us to wear tight shirts. Obviously I was just joking, but it is things like this that I do with friends rather than professors. Also, later on when we smelt marijuana in the street Willie jokingly asked Lorena if she wanted to smoke pot with us. She said, “no because she needed to keep her job.”

TRAVEL

This past weekend we went out of town to the coast. It started as a day trip with USAC to visit the tiny village of Pomaire, and the coastal town of Isla Negra. After seeing the house of Pablo Neruda ten of us decided to stay in Isla Negra instead of taking the bus back to Santiago. It turned out to be an incredibly fun stay. When we got off the bus we had no place to stay and no plans. It was 6:00pm. Within fifteen minutes we found some cabins for just six dollars per night for each person.

After buying food we went to the beach with nearly three hours of daylight remaining. I stayed the night with the nine others and spent all of Sunday on the beach. We went to dinner in a semi-fancy restaurant. There we met our waiter, Mr. Griffo, who said he teaches English in Santiago during the school year. He was working in the restaurant as a summer job.

He talked with us for a while before asking us if any of us knew how to play the guitar. When my friend Noah said “yes” Mr. Griffo brought his guitar out from the back. He played us two songs he wrote, followed by Noah playing ‘Rocky Raccoon’. Keep in mind that this whole thing took place in a restaurant. At the time there was just one other Mr. Griffo told us where he worked in Santiago, and invited us to come visit him when he returned in March. It is reasons like this that I appreciate some towns . Randomly you will have complete strangers demonstrate incredible acts of kindness.

As it turns out our plan-less weekend worked out beautifully. On Saturday night myself and three others chose to return to Santiago. We knew that we could take a bus, but we were not quite sure of the time of the last bus of the day. Someone thought that it was at 9:30pm. Due to Mr. Griffo’s songs we left the restaurant at 9:25pm.

We hurried to the bus station certain that we would not make it in time. At 9:33pm we bought a ticket for five dollars and hoped on bus which departed within a minute. I could not believe how easy it was to get a bus ride from the coast to Santiago. It was cheap and roomy. The seats could lean far backwards, and were much more comfortable than airplane seats.

The bus took us to downtown Santiago, almost two hours away. At the central station there were dozens of buses headed in all directions. I am going to make sure to take advantage of the convenience of the bus system. It is my future hope to head to the station after school on a Friday, buy a cheap ticket, and headed someway far away for a weekend stay. I love how simple it is, and the element of adventure.

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Photos

Bellas Artes
Joey, Lorena, Adam

Pomaire
A tiny Chilean village known for their pottery

Comments

[Alan]

Proud Uncle
I am so excited for your life changing experience there in Chile! Maureen and I were in Valparaiso in 2009 and enjoyed our short stay very much. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us, and we are looking forward with great anticipation to your future blogs!!!

[maureen marconi]

bus to argentina
Hi Adam, If you want a major adventure you can take a very comfortable bus overnight to Buenos Aires. Alan and I met two guys who did just that on the cruise we took to South America. Our ship stopped at Valparaiso where they got off, taking a bus back home to BA. Supposedly that is the way many Chileans and Argentines travel between the two countries, much cheaper than flying and as comfortable as flying first class. Don't know if you need a visa to get into Argentina. Ken is American and his partner is from BA. They would be glad to show you around BA. I can give you Ken's email if you are interested. Glad to read you are having a great time. We liked Chile.

[Wes]

Hi
Hey Adam, sounds like your having some exciting adventures. I've heard a great way to facilitate learning a foreign language is to carry a pen and pad everywhere you can, and write down any words you don't already know.