Advertisement
Published: March 21st 2007
Fire
Sometimes even tourists stumble upon something cool. So here I am, after far too much neglect of affection towards the computer (i.e. blogging. South America has a way of separating you from the internet). But as I have a hard time with structure as it is, I will try my honest best to keep this updated! I can´t thank you enough for caring enough to read about me life! I´ll try to keep it spicy for ya!
So the basics: here I find myself living in the heart of Santiago, Chile, in my first appartment with a 27 year old interior designer named Carolina. She keeps me on my toes with spanish (she doesn´t speak english), and in return I unleash all my domestic instincts (aka. cooking, entertaining, lighting candles...) that have been boiling inside me after 2.5 years in a dorm room.
I take classes here, some lovely token intro-to-literature overviews that fit my life perfectly, as I am not really here to get the rigorous academic experience Richmond has to offer (shhhh).
Every Chilean I talk to seems to have two questions: why Chile? I tell them the truth: I heard from numerous world travelers that Chile was the most beautiful country
in the world. And it has proven to be true, even though I haven´t seen half of it. The next is: Do you like Chile? I must say that I dont have to put on an act or stretch the truth to convince them that I am absolutely in love with this country.
Carolina´s family lives about 2 hours away, and have taken me in. One weekend I went to their home in Rancagua and spent the weekend chomping on fresh food and trying desperately to understand Chilean spanish (which, as I have discovered, is faster, more slurred, and filled with random slang to the point that even other spanish speakers can´t understand them. When mental exhaustion sets in, I simply mimic the facial expressions of the speaker--laugh when they laugh, look interested when they´re serious, say âhhyy siii, when it sounds like they´ve just hit a punchline. It´s an uncanny life skill I feel everyone should possess.).
I´ve been feeling like such the big girl navigating this 6 million person city all by myself. Today, for example, I took the metro to the international police station accross town to get my visa registered (required within the first
Dry Ice
Descending into Santiago the first day. Me equals face plastered to dirty window. 30 days of entry). I found the building, the right line, took a number, then interviewed in spanish and turned in all the necessary paperwork. Then I scampered again across town to the Registro Civil (basically the Chilean DMV) where I had to use a little batting of the American blue eyes to escape without a 3 hour wait (I swear! I only pull out the blue eyes trick when I absolutely have to! It was also accompanied by the fake engagement ring...). Afterwards, I felt so proud of myself, hello independent woman. Now, if I could only figure out how to work the copy machine at school . . .
Here, I will include pictures, as they tell far more words than this keyboard does (by the way, did I mention that I think foreign keyboards are the devil´s curse to travelers?).
Advertisement
Tot: 0.098s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 57; dbt: 0.062s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Travelin teacher
David McLean
Chile
I like your blog. Keep taking nice pictures. Enjoy your time abroad!!