Semester in Santiago, Chile

---

---

Earthquake

Well I am starting a bit out of order here, but things have finally slowed down to the point that I can catch up with some blogging. Before today we had orientation stuff going on all day long and we were busy getting situated in the hotel and then with our host families. I am living with a couple, Luis and Claudia and their five year old son Alonso. They are fantastic, incredibly patient and helpful which is great for now when my Spanish is… well I’m working on it. The orientation went well, got to know everybody in the group pretty well. We had several academic sessions all week discussing cultural stuff as well as Spanish classes. Once we got to our respective houses we started to take tours and spread our wings a bit more. Figuring out how to use the public transportation took the most time for me, and I in no way have it mastered yet.

Easily the biggest news of the trip so far occurred yesterday, when the 5th biggest earthquake since 1900 hit us 200 miles to the south. I feel like I should preface this by saying I have never known myself to be a heavy sleeper, but I would have missed it all if Luis hadn’t come to wake me up and see if I was alive. By the time I was fully aware of what was happening it was over, my desk was on the other side of the room, and my bed had migrated to the middle. The power was out but they already had candles lit and were starting to clean up the glass that had broken. We finally went to bed at about 5 only to be awoken by the first big aftershock at 8:30 that registered as only slightly smaller than the Haiti quake. Aftershocks have been pretty consistent, but only a few of them are anything major. Plus there is a sense that if the house can deal with a magnitude 8.8 and have nothing more than a few broken bottles of wine we can make it through anything. Since then we have been given the orders to stay in the house unless we leave with our host families… not a hard order to follow seeing as I have just been sitting on the porch reading in the shade of a palm tree for about two days now (The weather has been fantastic by the way, 87 and sunny. Don’t hate me). So yea I am suffering through it as best I can. Classes have been postponed for a week until everything has blown over and people are able to leave their houses.

So far I have been extremely impressed with everything we have had to eat. Dad you might have trouble when you come to visit because I like the tea, which can only mean that it’s not nearly gross enough for your tastes, also you may have to switch to sugar for a week because the honey vaguely resembles yellow silly putty. I have noticed that they eat avocado like its catsup down here, and I have no complaints about that at all. Today for lunch we had guacamole on spaghetti noodles with toast and tea. It may not sound like fine dining but it was really good. Yesterday for dinner I had spaghetti noodles with chicken hot dogs and scrambled eggs all mixed together, once again much better than it sounds. I am getting the sense that they have all the same food; it’s just put together differently, such as the shrimp, tuna, and mushroom pizza we had the night of the quake.

Well that’s about all I have to report on for now, stay tuned for the next post that hopefully has nothing to do with earthquakes and a lot more to do with classes and how much Spanish I can speak.

Ciao!

---