Blogs from Ñuñoa, Santiago Region, Chile, South America - page 3

here i am. its on the chilly side, no pun intended. i managed to sleep a little on the plane from miami, which was delayed, just like the flight from chicago. but sleeping on planes is never good enough. the seats are uncomfortable, my neck cramps up, my butt falls asleep. maybe if i could afford first class with those fancy seats that recline i wouldnt be complaining. as it is i was in coach. and not sleeping well. we rode a fancy bus that smelled like lemon cleaner to la universidad andres bello, where we had a brief introduction to the program and the trip on monday. then we met our host families and went home with them. my host mom claudia is very nice, as are my host brothers felipe and ronato. its still ... read more

3/26/07 Happy Birthday Grandma! I just want to add a couple things about Santiago: Micros Piratas and self service 1. self-service. Santiaguinos don't believe in it. I don't know why, maybe they're trying to create more jobs, maybe they don't trust people not to steal things, I don't know, but I don't like it. I think my dislike for it (and the usted/tu dichotomy) is part of my blossoming culture shock which is supposed to hit soon. Supposedly during culture shock, when I'm trying to integrate myself into this culture, I'll start hating things chilean out of frustration. And I hate that they don't let us do things for ourselves. What am I talking about? In the libraries here, you can't browse the books. The books are all registered in the computer, you look up what ... read more

2/7/07 4:24 PM Riding buses in Santiago is quite the experience. I don’t remember very clearly how the combis were in Chiapas (did we even take real buses? I just remember combis), but I’m pretty sure that they waited until people were all the way in the vehicle before they took off. In the past all of the buses in Santiago have been privately owned, and the micreros (bus drivers- a bus is called a micro here) and a bus driver is paid for the number of tickets he sells in a day. The result is dozens of buses zooming around the streets of Santiago as quickly as possible, stopping on any street corner regardless of the absence of a bus stop, driving with their doors open, driving with so many people during rush hour that ... read more

1/31/07 12:50 PM Hi. Life is going pretty well here. I just cleaned my room today, and it feels a little cleaner, but not really. I guess probably just because it’s so small that it’s hard to make it feel clear. School started on Monday. We have 4 hours of Intesnive Spanish class Monday-Friday. There are five different classes and 3 levels; intermediate, intermediate-advanced, and advanced. I’m pretty stoked on being in the intermediate-advanced class, because the advanced class is all native speakers. Our teacher is named Andres and is the only male teacher in the program. I think he said his family is from Germany, and he has blondish-red hair, blue eyes, and a graying beard. He looks just as gringoey as any of us, so I’m trying to figure out what it is about ... read more

1/23/07 11:51 PM Hola queridos, I am in Santiago, Chile. Today was my first day here. The internet connection is weak in the hostel and I don’t have ALL that much to write about, but today was an eventful day nonetheless and I want to write about it, so I think I may start keeping a log or something and sending it out periodically. The whole trip went pretty smoothly. Mom and I drove down to LA Sunday morning, had lunch with my beloved godbrother Derek and his girlfriend Arlene, and then settled in at my uncle and aunt’s house. My aunt, Jenny, has a friend who just married a Chilean guy from Santiago, so they had them over for dinner, and Claudio told me all about Santiago city life and drew all over my map ... read more