Blogs from Viña del Mar, Valparaíso Region, Chile, South America - page 4

Some thoughts on Chile: Santiago is a typical large capital city. Since it is summer, the visitors include many Chileans as well as international tourists. The people I met were friendly and patient with my lack of Spanish. Starbucks was a huge hit here, as Chile did not have anything like it. Among the beautiful 17th and 18thcentury buildings are modern high-rises. Earthquake damage from the 2010 quake is visible and slowly being repaired. The main highways are in excellent repair. They are privately owned and paid for by tolls. All main highways are toll roads. The downside to this privatization is that roads get built where they will be profitable and other areas may be under served. The resort of Vina del Mar is teaming with tourists, many from the Mendoza Province of Argentina. It ... read more

During our break from school Sophie Laura (two of my best) and I decided to get out of the country and check out Chile. We had two options for transportation either A - Take a flight which is about 1 1/2hours, which also means as American citizens we have to pay an entrance fee of around $130 or there was option B. Suck it up and take a 20 hour bus ride. It was an easy decision, being poor college students that live in a foreign country we easily met the qualifications of bypassing that nasty entrance fee... Bus it is! To be fair, the buses are extremely luxurious offering movies, food and plenty of sleeping space which is hardly enough to bitch about, except one thing.... people who bring their toddlers. In my experience with ... read more

It’s been quite a while since my last post. Oops. Sorry ☺. Life in Chile has not drastically changed over the last few weeks although the weather is starting to warm up! Nearly every day after classes we head to the beach to play volleyball, take a walk or just sit and talk. Every time I see the waves I think about how blessed I am to live 4 blocks from the sea where God’s omnipotence and sovereignty is so evident! Caroline and I have been spending nearly every day with the youth from our church. There is usually some sort of activity going on since the majority of our friends don’t have classes due to the student strike. It’s a bummer for them but a bonus for our social lives ☺. There are many things ... read more

“Death Becomes Her”...This is the name of the movie (at least I think it was a movie) that we watched last night. The movie was in English but with Spanish subtitles. Now imagine yourself in a foreign country sitting in the living room with a family of non-English speakers. The dad, sitting to your left, turns to you and says, “I understand ‘death’ and ‘her’, but what does ‘becomes’ mean?” You say, “Oh, you know, like death ‘becomes’ her. But not actually ‘becomes’ her, it merely ‘becomes’ her. Try not to think of it as ‘becomes’ her, but rather more of a ‘becomes’ her.” Now imagine this entire conversation happening in another language. Let’s just say I had difficulties explaining this movie title. Well, school is officially underway. This week was extremely chaotic and disorganized. My ... read more

Here’s a little advice: when asked if you think a Chilean boy is guapo, always say “no”. Yesterday the ex-pololo (ex-boyfriend) of Francisca came for a visit. After he left she asked me if I “found him handsome”. I thought to myself, “well yeah, I suppose so. Hmmm, well kind of, oh I don’t know.” All these thoughts passed through my head but somehow all that came out of my mouth was “Sí”… Oops. The whole family jumped on that bandwagon like it was Noah’s ark when the water reached the rooftops! They were so excited. I was asked at least 10 times if I wanted Francisca to set up a date for me. Um thanks, but I think I’ll pass. Note to self: in Chile, one must always “find” boys ugly ☺. In news outside ... read more