Advertisement
It is getting chilly here, folks. As all of you in the U.S. are finally celebrating spring, I’m going through the exact opposite here! I think I have mentioned it before, but I’ll mention it again. In Chile, it is incredibly expensive to have indoor heating like many of us (and definitely myself) are accustomed to in the U.S. So, for what I am used to, it isn’t really cold outside right now. It is about 50 or so during the day and a bit colder at night. But the difference is, my pattern for 20 years in the U.S.: Freezing, freezing, freezing (step inside), WARM. Here in Chile: Cold, cold, cold (step inside)…cold. As a result, I find most of my days are spent with a sweatshirt or light jacket on. And when I am not, my Chilean mom is quick to point it out! She is always worried im going to freeze or something. The other day, when I went to a soccer game, she told me to bring 20 jackets. Yup, 20. And I’m not sure she was completely kiddingJ
Big news for Chilean students and some universities: Paro. A “paro” is when Chilean students at certain
universities and in certain majors, including mine right now, decide to go on strike. They don’t attend classes and spend a lot of time protesting. While I still have many questions myself about the subject, I know most of the basics. Essentially, they are protesting high costs of a college education. Today, actually, is Navy day here in Chile. This is also the day where the president gives the equivalent of the “state of the union” address. As such, often there will be protests leading up to this day in an effort to get the president to commit to a lower cost of education. Since this is not the first time striking has happened, I am not sure how effective it has been in the past. Personally, the Paro has not affected me much, as most of my classes are with other international students. Though classes at the university are not meeting, the classes with other international students continue to meet. I have only one class with Chileans, and this class has been cancelled a few weeks in a row for different reasons not related to the Paro, such as the fact that today is a holiday and no one
has class. As such, I have no clue is this class will be affected by the paro or not. My plan is just to go to the class next Tuesday and see if anyone is there. If not, I guess I’ll assume it’s not being held.
This last Sunday, after having lunch with my family, I went to play ultimate, as usual. There is generally a few of us that meet there consistently every Sunday, but not generally enough to make 2 teams and play a good game. Only this Sunday, it was different! We had over 15 people show up and got a great game going! It had been a while since I had had the chance to play, so it was great to get in some practice again. It makes me look forward even more to my season next year at college!
In terms of classes, this week will be a really relaxed one for me. On Monday, my only class was cancelled. Today, Tuesday, is Navy Day like I mentioned. Tomorrow I have one class, and then Thursday I leave for another long weekend trip to San Pedro. So in total I have just one
fish, anyone?
I pretty common sight at the outdoor markets around here! class this weekJ It is nice to be able to take advantage of the time to spend outside before it gets colder, and get caught up with some school work. Tonight, I will be meeting up with some friends from Luther who are also studying abroad here. We have a friend from Luther who is an international student there, and is from Chile. His family lives only about 45 minutes from us, so we are going to get together with them tonight for once (pronounced like the Spanish number 11. It is like dinner, but generally smaller). It will be cool to meet his family and make another connection with people from around the area.
As I mentioned, on Thursday we leave for San Pedro. It is way up north in the Atacama Desert. I have a feeling after a couple days there I wont be complaining about the cold anymore. The weather for San Pedro right now predicts temperatures of 95-100 Fahrenheit during the time we are there! However, there is some really cool stuff to see there, such as geysers! It will probably be my last big trip of my time here, so I plan to make the most of it.
It is weird to think that my time is here is not far from over. Of course, I still have over a month and a half left, but I know it will go by so fast. I look back on all I have done so far, and realize I have done a lot. But, at the same time, it still seems to go fast. The weeks fly by. But that is just encouragement for me to take everything one day at a time, and make the most out of every day I have. And I plan to do just that. A big thanks to all of you back in the U.S. who have continued to encourage and support me throughout this journey!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.058s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 5; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0359s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Aunt Shari
non-member comment
Blogs so interesting
Isaac, I sure enjoy your blogs - it's like the travel writers on Public TV, who travel the world, and although they video their travels, they are always full of insights on the places they travel and what to do and NOT to do. As back-up to your career in Spanish, ...well there's there's always the life of a travel writer! Love ya!