Blogs from Viña del Mar, Valparaíso Region, Chile, South America - page 2

Last Thursday we set out on what was most likely my last long weekend adventure! This time we went up North, flying into a city called Calama. From there, we waited around for a few hours until we could catch a bus for the 2 hour ride to San Pedro de Atacama, which was where we stayed for the weekend. After arriving in San Pedro, we dedicated the rest of Thursday to exploring the city (which wasn’t very big) and figuring out what we wanted to do for the rest of the weekend. San Pedro definitely has what I would call an “old time” feel to it. It is a small, touristy city, set off by itself, surrounded by miles of desert. The streets are all packed sand with rocks and gravel. It was a laid ... read more

Now that I have time to write a little more about daily life, I want to use this blog entry to reflect on some things I have learned through my first couple months here. First, one thing that has really surprised me about my time abroad so far is how easy it was to adjust compared to what I thought it would be. I was prepared for a long, arduous process of struggling not only with the language, but with the culture, the big city, and the multitude of other things which I was experiencing for the first time. While there have been and will, I am sure, continue to be some struggles, overall, they have not been nearly as difficult as I was expecting. For that, I am very grateful to friends and family here, ... read more

Wow, it’s already been 10 days since I last updated this blog. That’s crazy, I was sure it hadn’t been more than a week! But I guess that just proves the title of my last entryJ As I have a few trips coming up, I have been trying to use this time to relax and rest up, but somehow I always manage to keep myself pretty busy, which is definitely better than the alternative! I’ve done some pretty fun things in the last 10 days or so, so I’ll try to start at the beginning. For Easter weekend, we went to the capital of Chile, Santiago. We arrived on Saturday and stayed in a hostel Saturday night. The dumby who printed off directions to the hostel (couldn’t have been me…) wasn’t smart enough to write down ... read more

Eduardo presented about all things marine this morning, from Chile’s maritime sea claim to Easter Island to fishing life in the archipelago. He reviewed the key points about the various disputes with Argentina and Bolivia without getting too serious. His knowledge of fish was limited. We got on the bus for what I expected to be a fairly routine city tour. Quite fun actually. We were soon off the bus, wandering through the gardens of a hacienda that once belonged to the father-in-law and subsequently the daughter of the founder of Viña del Mar, Jose Francisco Vergara. His daughter had a fraught life and the family all died out. The hacienda became the property of the municipality. This is a remarkable common story in Chile, supplying the municipalities with some beautiful buildings for museums, libraries and ... read more

As you may have surmised from the title, I had my first week of classes this week. I enjoyed them all, and just having the consistent practice in Spanish is fun for me as well. Though I have five classes, I only had three this week. Why, you ask? Well that is my question, tooJ The students showed up; the professor did not. Both the classes were classes that meet only once a week, so I am wondering if for some reason those classes do not meet the first week? But I really am not sure. One of those classes is called Mapuche Games, and it is the one class I am taking with Chileans. Many Chilean students showed up for the class too, so I guess the professor just decided to take a day off:) ... read more