Week 4

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Tues, Sept 8
Today, I headed to my 10am class. It was an easy class. We talked about the importance of letting your host parents know if something is wrong as well as being honest. Also, we analyzed certain situations in the past where a student didn't tell the host family something about them, and the host family was not too prepared to handle it. I thought most of it was common knowledge that everyone knew, but it didn't hurt bringing the topic up. We then brainstormed ideas for a 5 page essay we need to write. We are required to write an autobiography about 5 aspects about ourselves.. in spanish. Fun stuff, right? Anyways, after class, Al and I walked around and we took some pictures of the Concepcion campus. That was a fun thing to do. Haha, there were some statues of naked people - Al really wanted pics of those. But, it was awkward because Chilenos were staring at us, haha. Afterwards, I returned home and had lunch. I didn't do much the rest of the day.

Wed, Sept 9
i had to wake up early to get some rent money from the school. So, I ate breakfast, took a micro at 9:05 to the University, grabbed the money, and came right back home. Everything went smoothly! I then did some homework, and was lazy until lunch time. Then after lunch, I had some extra time, so I played some nerds with Oliver and Marcela. I then took a micro at 2:20 and arrived at the university in time for my 3:00 class. I enjoyed class, and I felt like I actually learned something! The class is in a room with many computers - so each student gets to do exercises hands on while the professor teaches. I found it much easier to learn that way - as opposed to listening to the professor lecture for 2 hours. Near the end of class, we found out that we didn't have to go to class for the next two days because of protests!! See, students are going to be protesting for the upcoming anniversary of the military coup, and the university is closed to protect the students from any danger. Tonight, there was a soccer game between Chile and Brazil. Brazli is the toughest team to beat as the team is the best in the world. It would be amazing if Chile were to win tonight. The group went to a pub called "The beer place" to watch the game. The place was packed - it's good we got there early to reserve seats for everyone. They had empanadas for 300 pesos each (60 cents!) They were kind of small.. but still! That was an amazing deal! Afterwards, we went to a bar called Duraznos. The place was empty so we decided to head somewhere a bit more exciting. We went to a restaurant called Tribalto. They had spanish karoake going on there. It was a really cool place, but to me the karaoke was a bit on the loud side! Still, it was pretty fun. I was kind of tired so didn't stay at the restaurant too long. I took a taxi home which was $5.50. Not too bad.

Thur, Sept 9
Well i'm writing on a sunday night, so lets see how much i remember from Thursday! There wasn't class today. So, if I recall correctly, I just slept in, stayed home, and hung out! I decided not to go out tonight, because I realized that I was going to have to get up at 5:45 in the morning to get to the university by 7. See, we are going to Chillan this weekend. We will be going in the hot springs and skiing the andes mountains. It's about an hour and a half to the city, and another hour to get to the mountain, so we figured it would be best to leave early. I am pretty sure that today I stayed at home and played some cards with the family and do some homework, haha.

Fri, Sept 10
What a day! Woke up early, got to the university by 7, and we took a micro to Chillan. The micro was cold for most of the ride; I am talking 50-55 degrees. I was glad to have brought extra layers as well as my wool socks. The ride there, there was not much to look at besides trees - oh and cows, indicating that some people in fact live there! The road had quite a few curves. That was different for me because I'm pretty sure Minnesota is like 99% flat! I sat next to Al and we talked for a bit, while about half of the others were sleeping, and profesora Luz was talking to the people that were awake. We stopped in Chillan to rent skiing/snowboarding equipment because it is cheaper than going on the mountain to rent. I rented a snowboard, boots, and goggles. We then left to go straight to the mountain. I took about an hour to get there. The ride was not too bumpy, but we had to go slow because of it being uphill. Also, the road was all dirty, so there were times where it was dusty in the bus; making it hard to breathe. We finally got there at about 1pm. We ate at the ski resort which was expensive - $7.50 for a hamburger. I wasn't surprised though. I had a great time snowboarding. I love it - especially in the mountains where you get to snowboard longer and its usually more challenging. The view from the ski lift is amazing, too. I started off snowboarding at the really easy parts, because mostly everyone that went weren't too good at it. Later, I found Brad and Evin, so I was able to snowboard at my level with them. It was awesome. I'm definitely going to make sure I get out there again before I leave Chile. I only snowboarded for about 3 hours, and there is a lot more areas I didn't get to cover. Plus, I would love to take more pictures. Afterwards, we went to a restaurant in Chillan, which was nice, and then we found a hotel to stay at for the night. It was only $16 per person to stay, and the hotel was very nice with free breakfast the next day! That is unbeatable! Anyways, it was a fun night hanging out with everyone. We decided to go to a bar later that night and got to know some locals. That was also fun, and I went to bed once we got back.

Sat, Sept 11
Apparently Evin and Al were still awake at about 7:30. They decided to run around the hotel and wake everyone up, including me. I was pretty angry to be waken up so early - especially since breakfast was not until 10:20. But at the same time I thought they were pretty funny. Anyways, I slept more, got up, and we had breakfast. It ended up only being some bread with jelly/butter, and coffee. We expected more for the $16 that we paid to stay! Haha jk. We then walked around Chillan for a little - saw a choir outside, saw the plaza, and the humongous church there. We decided to buy bus tickets before they got sold out - and they were only $3 per person! Compare that with the $15 from Saint Cloud to Minneapolis, haha. Then, most of us were hungry so we decided to get some Chinese food. We got a "dinner for 6" on the menu and it was about $8 per person, so we figured why not right? Well it ended up being WAY too much food.. and we didn't know what to do about it! We all ate a lot, and kind of paced ourselves and took some breaks. We got through more than half of it - which we felt was a great accomplishment, haha. It was pretty good - not the best but still decent. I was so full walking out of the restaurant. It was good though because I wasn't hungry until late that night! Afterwards, we walked down a few blocks from the hotel to a market. There was a fresh food section and an arts/crafts section. We were more interested in the arts/crafts, obviously. I swear I could spend a whole day there looking at everything. MOSTLY everything was hand crafted - and if it wasn't then it was clothes or shoes, but still everything was so unique. Leather and wood seemed to be the popular materials; it was all cheap too. I got a coinbag and keychain that both say Chile on it and have unique artwork. I also got a rope bracelet with Brazil colors because I thought it looked cool. I only spent $5 on the items. There was a lot I didn't get to see, though. I would like to return at least once more. Anyways, we returned home on a bus at 5pm. The bus ride was annoying because Trevor and Karl were loud and I couldn't sleep. Oh well, it was only an hour and half. We got to the bus station in Concepcion, and we couldn't figure out how to get to O' Higgins street by bus. So, we walked there and took our usual bus ride back home. It was nice to be home after a somewhat tiring weekend. Haha, but then my brother asked me if I wanted to go to a party. I said yes since I figured i might as well go out on a Saturday night. We went to this sweet club in Chiguayante called camicasa. There were people dancing everywhere - like even if there wasn't room on the dance floor they would dance outside of it. Another sweet thing about this club is that there were a lot of women my age or younger and there were more women than men! Also, hardly anyone drank. Knockout was filled with older people that would drink more, and I never liked that. Camicasa was much nicer. My brother introduced me to a couple Chilenas. They were cute and nice to me as well. I had a blast dancing. The music was sweet because there was both Rigatone and American music that I knew of. They also had a Strobe light which I found that it made it easier to dance to. I don't know why it made me want to dance more, lol, it just did.

Sun, Sept 12
After a long weekend at Chillan and the party last night, I was incredibly tired. I slept in till 1! I decided to stay home and just take it easy. For lunch they served me a huge amount of food - a strip of pork, steak, and a chicken thigh/leg! I ate MOST of it, so I didn't feel too bad! That is the first time I had not eated all that they have served me! I bet they figured I hadn't eaten a lot over the weekend. After, I played some cards with the family but I felt so worn out while playing.. haha. Later, I tried to take a nap but couldn't. So, I just did some things on the computer, had dinner, and watched "Donde Esta Eliza" with my family. Again, this is a spanish soap opera that I find much easier to understand than mainstream television and news. So, I usually watch it with my family when it's on.

Mon, Sept 13
Today, I got up at 8:30 thinking we had class at 10. I was in a little bit of a rush to get to class and I was 5 minutes late. Well, we didn't even have class at that time. Apparently the word went around that Profesora Luz was cancelling the class. Me and 3 others did not know about it, so I could have slept for an hour longer! Well we had class at 11 - I listened to the teacher go on about his lecture on Latin American Literature. I understood most of what he was saying this time, so it was not boring to me. It was a challenge trying to understand him and at the same time learning about the material itself. It seemed like multitasking. After class, I returned home for almuerzo. I kind of missed almuerzo, I got home at 3 and it was supposed to be at 2... but my family said that it didn't matter. They are so nice! They sat with me while I ate, had tea, and talked with one another. We then played some nerds! Afterwards, I did some facebook, and then went to an international student reception. They had students from different countries that were studying here like ourselves (other foriegn exchange students). There were students from Germany, France, and Mexico here, and we never even realized it! Both a mexican and a german talked, and they were quite good at spanish! You could definitely tell the difference in accent. They showed a video of the cool places you can go in Chile; it was funny because they had music from the movie "Gladiator"going on while you would watch it, haha. It made me want to watch the movie. Afterwards, they invited us to some free empanadas and wine.. That hit the spot! I noticed that when they invite you to things like that, it is more for social reasons than for the actual food. I think it is a great way to get people out of their shell - go Chile! Afterwards everyone decided to go to a bar called "The Beer Place." It was cool getting to know people from other countries. I think there were more germans than anyone else.

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