Advertisement
Published: March 21st 2007
Edit Blog Post
Pretty Church
Here´s a castle-like church in Puerto Varas. Right now, Jen and I are sitting in a café called Dino’s where they have internet access! They’re playing the soundtrack to Gone with the Wind. I’m drinking fresh fruit juice and watching the hustle and bustle of the little city of Osorno outside.
I’m so amazed at the flocks of people downtown. The first day we were here we thought there was some kind of festival going on because of the masses of pedestrians in the streets, but it turns out it was just a typical day - lots of people taking advantage of the back-to-school sales. It’s nice to see few a town over-run by families rather than cars.
Even though I’m taller than everyone else on the street (this may be something only I’m self-conscious of) no one really looks at me like I stand out. The only thing that people have mentioned is the color of my eyes. At first this surprised me because Osorno doesn’t draw many tourists, then I realized how much of a German influence the town has. There are German brand names and desserts advertised in store windows and many of the houses have German-style architecture. Jen’s host-mom, for example
Rosas
These are typical in ¨the City of Roses¨ (Puerto Varas) is of German descent as are a good percentage of Chileans in this region. So, I guess I just look German, which makes sense :-)
On our first day of school, Jen and I were a little confused about where to find our classroom. A girl asked us if we needed help and we asked, “Oh, we look foreign, don’t we?” We were happy that her reply was, “No, you just look lost.” So, as soon as I conquer the Chilean accent and countless Chilean expressions they don’t teach in the classroom (Cachai?) then I’m good to go.
Over the past few weekends, Jen and I have traveled to a few of the nearby cities. For just two bucks, you can take a 1-2 hour bus ride and get to a number of cities. Puerto Varas is known as the Chilean “city of roses.” Puerto Montt, a bigger port town is where we’ll take our boat to the south! More on that soon…
We’re trying to explore the region as much as we can before the weather gets bad. For all of you who are jealous of the warm weather I’ve been having here, don’t worry. One
Montanas
Nice mountain scene near the docks of Puetro Montt student told me that even though it’s beautiful now, in a few weeks the clouds will come and I won’t see the sun until I’m back in the States.
The climate here really is different. It’s strange to see a palm tree and a pine tree next to each other. For the end of summer, it really hasn’t been too warm (in maybe the 60’s and windy). There have only been a few times when I’ve gone outside without a jacket and even then everyone else has had long sleeves on. Even though women’s clothing tends to be a little tighter than I’m comfortable with, the only short shorts I’ve seen have been on guys playing soccer (kind of the opposite in the U.S.) and not too many flip-flops either.
Universidad de los Lagos (Lakes University) has been quite the cultural experience. We were worried about missing the first day of classes (no one told us school started on Wednesday until Thursday afternoon) but that didn’t seem to matter much. We’ve learned that it’s typical for students to miss the first week or two of school. When they do come, it doesn’t seem to be a big
Jen and I
more of Puerto Varas deal to walk into class 15 minutes late (now that’s my kinda school!) I don’t want to give Chile a bad rap though; I’ve heard that other universities here are not so lax, mine just happens to be more laid back.
I’m taking two Literature courses, one focuses on Latin America, the other on Spain. I don’t know how I’m going to survive them. I think I’m reading more in Spanish in one semester than I ever have in English! Since the classes meet for so many hours each week and since there’s so much reading, I’ll actually be receiving double credit for each class when I return to CUA (yeah!) My university doesn’t have a bookstore either, so when a professor assigns a reading, they either give one student a photocopy which is supposed to be shared among the class, or they expect students to go find it on their own. This means fighting the other students for the library’s copy, looking for it on the internet, or going out and searching for it in one of the used bookstores hidden within Osorno. I guess I can’t complain about the price!
In addition, I’m also taking a
Banderas
High-flying Chilean flags in Puerto Varas Mapuche culture class, where I’ll learn about the history and language of native Chileans. In order to get de-stressed from all that reading, and in hopes of making more Chilean friends, I’m also taking a basketball class. I was a little apprehensive at first since I haven’t really used my basketball skills since fourth grade, but then I realized that out of the nine other students in the class, none of them are superstars by any means. It makes me feel better to see them laugh at themselves and not at me.
Everyone has been very friendly at U Lagos. It’s still going to take some time to get used to the kissing though (it’s a standard greeting here, I promise!) Whenever Chileans meet someone for the first time or run into an acquaintance, they kiss each other on the cheek (unless they’re both guys, then just a handshake is acceptable). They also give a kiss when they say goodbye. For me, I think it’s a nice way to say hello to someone you know well or haven’t seen in awhile, but it gets old when you see the same acquaintances everyday. If there’s someone new in the room,
Boatman
Puerto Varas my first instinct is not to go up and kiss them, but apparently if you don’t it’s rude (Jen’s hostmom has even apologized a few times when we met her family members and seemed hesitant when they leaned in close to us!) Jen and I also joke when we´re about to leave somewhere, ”Oh, we have to go kiss everyone again, don’t we?”
I´ve included some pictures I´ve been taking the past few weeks. I have a bunch more, which I´ll get around to uploading sometime soon. Hope everyone´s doing well. Miss you all!
MUCH much love,
Maria
Advertisement
Tot: 0.12s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 11; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0745s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Donna F
non-member comment
stunning!
Hey, Maria, your pictures are wonderful! Can hardly wait to hear of your boat trip south! Hoe classes go well! Love, MDF