Hello! Tomorrow after class Melissa and I are going to leave for Viña del Mar and Valparaíso! Woohoo! We bought our bus tickets today, and they were pretty cheap - round trip tickets were only about $10.50, which was pretty fabulous! Also, Melissa's papá found a great place for us to stay this weekend - it´s a little apartment that is in a central location in Viña del Mar. At first, I was a little nervous about us two going alone, but I have heard from my family here, a professor, and a few students that Viña del Mar is super-safe during the day and at night. Valparaíso is a Port city, so we were told to only tour that area during the day. We were just told to stick together, to take taxis at night (always a good idea) and to not flash around our cameras or mp3 players at night. That's always good advice though, so I'm sure we'll be fine. We will have our cell phones and will be able to call either of our family's or our advisor (she told us that we can call her any time of day if we need her) for help if we need it. The cities are very close together - they have metros and buses that go from one city to the other (although apparently they are connected now). We are planning on visiting the house of Pablo Neruda, the who is the most celebrated Chilean author. The cities are both border the Pacific Ocean and the Andes mountains, so it's supposed to be beautiful. I would be embarassed to go to Chile and not visit these cities!
Anyways, classes are going well. I am feeling more and more confident in my Spanish every day. Melissa is also improving! We have gotten to practice Spanish with our families a LOT and have tried to only speak in Spanish with each other - although sometimes we fail. We usually speak in Spanglish (in Spanish with English words and phrases inserted when we don't know how to say it). Today after class, we went and ate empanadas with some students from our class. One is from South Korea and the other is from Australia. We spoke mostly in Spanish, but the Korean was more comfortable with English suprisingly, so we spoke in English some. Apparently people from Australia really like southern accents, so I tried to imitate one. Alas, I am not very good at accents! Oh well. Of course we've been having fun listening to the Australian accent. Who doesn't love that?
I am suprised at how popular American culture is here! Whenever you go into a store or restraunt, there is usually American music playing. Also, I live across the street from a Holiday Inn Express and a Landrover store. A couple blocks away are a Hooters and a Ruby Tuesday. It just seems wrong! Oh well, I don't plan on eating American food while I'm here. I can eat that for the rest of my life, and the food here is fabulous! I think I am walking it all off though. It takes me about 45 minutes to get to school in the morning. The nearest metro station is about a mile's walk away (more or less - haven't actually measured it). Then, I go five stations, change lines, and go one more station to get to school. The school isn't too far from the last station. This morning was a disaster - the metro was so busy! There was a huge crowd waiting to get on the trains. I was finally able to board the fifth train, so I was a little bit late for class. Luckily, tardiness is completely normal here.
Mykl and I got some frustrating news today - the apartments we were going to move into (had already paid to reverve the apartment a couple of monthes ago) told us that they weren't actually going to have any openings. So, we're having to look for apartments again. Or rather, Mykl is looking for apartments. We have a couple of ideas, but we will see if they even have openings. It's very frustrating being a hemisphere away when there are things going on in Springfield! Oh well, I am sure things will work themselves out.
Well, gotta go! I probably won't be able to write again until maybe Sunday night since we'll be out of town. Hopefully I'll take some pictures this weekend! I think I've only taken about 10, because I want to look less like a tourist.
Thursday
Monday
¡Hola! The weather in Santiago has been beautiful the last couple of days! The sky is a beautiful blue, with no clouds (unless you count the smog) and lots of sun! It's by no means warm, but it's not super-cold either, except at night.
Melissa and I did some exploring this weekend. Saturday night, we hung out with Pilar, a girl from Chile who is a relative of some family friends of Melissa. Complicated? Yes. Anyways, she's really nice and is going to be studying English in Detroit this fall, so she practiced her English with us and we practiced our Spanish with her. We ate the most amazing ice cream (besides the ice cream in Rome of course) and walked to her house through a beautiful park next to the river. They have these really cool fountains with different colored lights that change - the fountains change too. It was really pretty! Then, we hung out with Pilar's family a little bit. We ate dinner at my casa and decided that we were too tired to go to the birthday party, so we talked with my family for a while and then Melissa spent the night. Sunday, we slept in, ran some errands, and then went to eat lunch at Pilar's dad's house. His apartment had an amazing view of the Andes. We also went on top of the roof to get an even better view. The top floor of his building has a heated swimming pool! Weird place for a pool, huh? Anyways, after lunch, I worked on homework and hung out with my family the rest of the evening. I had a lot of homework to do! But, it wasn't super-hard to understand, so I was fine. I am also working on memorizing 20ish new vocabulary words a day while I am here.
I'm beginning to understand the money system here. They use pesos, which are worth almost nothing. One American dollar is worth 535 pesos. Their smallest bill is 1,000 pesos, which is about two dollars. I was confused when I had to pay 300,000 pesos to stay with my family, but in reality it wasn't as much as it sounded!
Last night my hermanita (little sister) and I went up to the roof of the apartment, and I saw El Cruz del Sur (The Southern Cross) which is a constellation that you can only see in the southern hemisphere. I also saw a statue of the virgin that they have on one of the smaller mountains. Apparently, you can see the statue from almost every part of the city. It must be huge!
Well, I wish I could write more, but ¡ya es la hora a almorzar y tengo que irme! (It's time to eat lunch and I have to go!).
Melissa and I did some exploring this weekend. Saturday night, we hung out with Pilar, a girl from Chile who is a relative of some family friends of Melissa. Complicated? Yes. Anyways, she's really nice and is going to be studying English in Detroit this fall, so she practiced her English with us and we practiced our Spanish with her. We ate the most amazing ice cream (besides the ice cream in Rome of course) and walked to her house through a beautiful park next to the river. They have these really cool fountains with different colored lights that change - the fountains change too. It was really pretty! Then, we hung out with Pilar's family a little bit. We ate dinner at my casa and decided that we were too tired to go to the birthday party, so we talked with my family for a while and then Melissa spent the night. Sunday, we slept in, ran some errands, and then went to eat lunch at Pilar's dad's house. His apartment had an amazing view of the Andes. We also went on top of the roof to get an even better view. The top floor of his building has a heated swimming pool! Weird place for a pool, huh? Anyways, after lunch, I worked on homework and hung out with my family the rest of the evening. I had a lot of homework to do! But, it wasn't super-hard to understand, so I was fine. I am also working on memorizing 20ish new vocabulary words a day while I am here.
I'm beginning to understand the money system here. They use pesos, which are worth almost nothing. One American dollar is worth 535 pesos. Their smallest bill is 1,000 pesos, which is about two dollars. I was confused when I had to pay 300,000 pesos to stay with my family, but in reality it wasn't as much as it sounded!
Last night my hermanita (little sister) and I went up to the roof of the apartment, and I saw El Cruz del Sur (The Southern Cross) which is a constellation that you can only see in the southern hemisphere. I also saw a statue of the virgin that they have on one of the smaller mountains. Apparently, you can see the statue from almost every part of the city. It must be huge!
Well, I wish I could write more, but ¡ya es la hora a almorzar y tengo que irme! (It's time to eat lunch and I have to go!).
Saturday
It´s Chilly in Chile
Hello again! This time I have a little bit more time to write. Pardon my cheesey title haha. It´s actually not that cold today. I was lucky and got to sleep in this morning! It was amazing! Today, Melissa and I are planning on doing some exploring downtown. We´re probably going to go visit El Museo de Las Bellas Artes (The Museum of Beautiful Art). Apparently this is the most important Museum in Santiago. I saw it yesterday while I was trying to find my school and I´m pretty sure I can find it again. I hope so! Oh, while we´re on the subject of being lost, I BOUGHT A MAP! Woohoo! I am so happy about that! Maybe I can find my way around a little better. I think I can! I think I can!
Also this afternoon, Melissa and I are planning on going out for ice cream with a friend of her family named Pilar. Then, later tonight we are going to a birthday party that Lorena, our advisor, told us about. Luckily for us, my mamà`s nephew is a cab driver, so he´s going to give us rides there and back. I´m not comfortable enough with this city to be out at dark yet, so this is a relief! Then, I think Melissa´s just going to spend the night at my casa. I don´t have plans yet for tomorrow, but hopefully we´ll do something fun!
The food here is very good! I love having hot tea all the time. Last night I had a traditional drink (I forgot what it was called) that consists of non-alcoholic red wine served hot with fruit slices. It was really really sweet, but good. My family had company, so we had a bigger dinner than usual. We had tacos! Yum! They were different though. They were small soft tortillas that you could fill with black beans, palta (sort of like a spicey guacamole), corn, cheese (although a very different type than we´re used to), and chicken. The chicken was different though - not shredded and not spicey. I loved the black beans in the tacos though - yum! The night before we had a special type of bread with whatever toppings we wanted - palta, cheese, eggs and bacon, ham, and this stuff that´s kind of like solid jelly that you cut into slices. That´s the best way I can explain it hehe. Everything is so good here! The milk is similar to the milk in Spain - it´s proccessed differently, so it´s okay if it´s left out for a long time, and it only has to be refrigerated after it´s opened. I don´t really care for the flavor enough to drink it by itself, but it´s okay if you just eat it with cereal or something.
I´m starting to figure out my neighborhood. I live next to all of this gigantic skyscrapers since I live in the financial district. It´s a pretty busy part of town. The Spanish here is different - they cut off the last part of their words and speak verrryyy very quickly. Also, most of their speech is made up of slang called Chileanismos (or something like that). Lorena (my advisor) said that Chileans speak with terrible grammar too - not just the lower classes, but everyone! So it´s been challenging at times to understand people. My family is really good about slowing down when they speak to me though. They are wonderful people!
Well, I´d better get going! Props to everyone who actually read all of this. ¡Chao!
Also this afternoon, Melissa and I are planning on going out for ice cream with a friend of her family named Pilar. Then, later tonight we are going to a birthday party that Lorena, our advisor, told us about. Luckily for us, my mamà`s nephew is a cab driver, so he´s going to give us rides there and back. I´m not comfortable enough with this city to be out at dark yet, so this is a relief! Then, I think Melissa´s just going to spend the night at my casa. I don´t have plans yet for tomorrow, but hopefully we´ll do something fun!
The food here is very good! I love having hot tea all the time. Last night I had a traditional drink (I forgot what it was called) that consists of non-alcoholic red wine served hot with fruit slices. It was really really sweet, but good. My family had company, so we had a bigger dinner than usual. We had tacos! Yum! They were different though. They were small soft tortillas that you could fill with black beans, palta (sort of like a spicey guacamole), corn, cheese (although a very different type than we´re used to), and chicken. The chicken was different though - not shredded and not spicey. I loved the black beans in the tacos though - yum! The night before we had a special type of bread with whatever toppings we wanted - palta, cheese, eggs and bacon, ham, and this stuff that´s kind of like solid jelly that you cut into slices. That´s the best way I can explain it hehe. Everything is so good here! The milk is similar to the milk in Spain - it´s proccessed differently, so it´s okay if it´s left out for a long time, and it only has to be refrigerated after it´s opened. I don´t really care for the flavor enough to drink it by itself, but it´s okay if you just eat it with cereal or something.
I´m starting to figure out my neighborhood. I live next to all of this gigantic skyscrapers since I live in the financial district. It´s a pretty busy part of town. The Spanish here is different - they cut off the last part of their words and speak verrryyy very quickly. Also, most of their speech is made up of slang called Chileanismos (or something like that). Lorena (my advisor) said that Chileans speak with terrible grammar too - not just the lower classes, but everyone! So it´s been challenging at times to understand people. My family is really good about slowing down when they speak to me though. They are wonderful people!
Well, I´d better get going! Props to everyone who actually read all of this. ¡Chao!
Friday
¡Estoy Aqui! (I am here!)
Hola from Chile! First of all, I would like to apologize for typing errors - the keyboard is different and I am still trying to figure it out! Also, I can{t write much today, but wanted to give everyone a quick update.
I had quite an interesting flight here. I took some medicine for motion sickness because I didn{t want to get sick during the flight. Well, apparently that was a bad idea. During the flight, I passed out, then threw up three times. Three separate times too - once right after passing out, once before landing, and once after landing. It was embarassing and I felt terrible! They made me leave the plane in a wheelchair, which I didn{t like at all. I haven{t really felt too great ever since. Usually I feel fine, but when I have to stand a lot or walk a lot (anytime I venture out of the apartment) I start feeling sick. Not fun! Oh well, I suppose it will get better soon. The good news about getting sick on the flight was that I got three seats to myself to lay down on, so I got a lot of sleep.
Chile is cold! It wouldn{t be so bad if there were heaters in the buildings. I miss the sun! When I landed yesterday, it was raining, but today the sky has been beautiful. I haven{t been able to explore much, but the basic impression of Santiago that I{ve gotten is that it is a BIG city! I have gotten lost every time I{ve ventured out of the apartment, which has been very frustating. It took me an hour to get to school this morning - luckily I left an hour early. I was so lost though! I can{t even get from the apartment to the nearest metro station. Once I{m on the metro, I{m fine, but then I can{t make my way from the metro station to school or to the apartment. I am pining for a map of the city and have heard that I can get one from some of the kiosks that line the streets. Woohoo! Also, the student who lived in the house before me left me his cell phone - all I have to do is add minutes to it. But I can receive calls for free, so if you feel like calling me I can give you my number via e'mail. Just let me know.
The food here is awesome! Its very rich and heavy and yummy. We drink hot tea with every meal and all the meals I have had so far have been served with soup. Very good soup too! Chileans love their avacados, bread, beans, rice, etc... I will have to write more about it later though. It{s dark and I need to figure out how to get home haha.
Thanks for all of the comments, they made my day! I have had some frustrating moments so far, but have been trying to stay positive. Classes today were great '- grammar! Woohoo! I feel more confident though, even though classes are taught completely in Spanish. I am taking classes with two guys from Korea, one girl from Germany, and Melissa, who is from MSU too. My family here is awesome and very very sweet. My papa is hilarious and I am lucky enough to have my own room with a connected bathroom. They are very small, but it{s nice to have a little bit of privacy. I learned how to use a gas stove and turn on the gas to get hot showers last night. Apparently I didn{t do it completely correctly because I only had about a minute of hot water. Oh well, I will ask my mama tonight for help. The family has two pets - a three legged dog named Benitoand a cat named Blanca. Benito reeks but is very sweet.
Well, gotta go! I{ll try to write more this weekend! Hasta luego!
I had quite an interesting flight here. I took some medicine for motion sickness because I didn{t want to get sick during the flight. Well, apparently that was a bad idea. During the flight, I passed out, then threw up three times. Three separate times too - once right after passing out, once before landing, and once after landing. It was embarassing and I felt terrible! They made me leave the plane in a wheelchair, which I didn{t like at all. I haven{t really felt too great ever since. Usually I feel fine, but when I have to stand a lot or walk a lot (anytime I venture out of the apartment) I start feeling sick. Not fun! Oh well, I suppose it will get better soon. The good news about getting sick on the flight was that I got three seats to myself to lay down on, so I got a lot of sleep.
Chile is cold! It wouldn{t be so bad if there were heaters in the buildings. I miss the sun! When I landed yesterday, it was raining, but today the sky has been beautiful. I haven{t been able to explore much, but the basic impression of Santiago that I{ve gotten is that it is a BIG city! I have gotten lost every time I{ve ventured out of the apartment, which has been very frustating. It took me an hour to get to school this morning - luckily I left an hour early. I was so lost though! I can{t even get from the apartment to the nearest metro station. Once I{m on the metro, I{m fine, but then I can{t make my way from the metro station to school or to the apartment. I am pining for a map of the city and have heard that I can get one from some of the kiosks that line the streets. Woohoo! Also, the student who lived in the house before me left me his cell phone - all I have to do is add minutes to it. But I can receive calls for free, so if you feel like calling me I can give you my number via e'mail. Just let me know.
The food here is awesome! Its very rich and heavy and yummy. We drink hot tea with every meal and all the meals I have had so far have been served with soup. Very good soup too! Chileans love their avacados, bread, beans, rice, etc... I will have to write more about it later though. It{s dark and I need to figure out how to get home haha.
Thanks for all of the comments, they made my day! I have had some frustrating moments so far, but have been trying to stay positive. Classes today were great '- grammar! Woohoo! I feel more confident though, even though classes are taught completely in Spanish. I am taking classes with two guys from Korea, one girl from Germany, and Melissa, who is from MSU too. My family here is awesome and very very sweet. My papa is hilarious and I am lucky enough to have my own room with a connected bathroom. They are very small, but it{s nice to have a little bit of privacy. I learned how to use a gas stove and turn on the gas to get hot showers last night. Apparently I didn{t do it completely correctly because I only had about a minute of hot water. Oh well, I will ask my mama tonight for help. The family has two pets - a three legged dog named Benitoand a cat named Blanca. Benito reeks but is very sweet.
Well, gotta go! I{ll try to write more this weekend! Hasta luego!
Tuesday
Oh geez, I'm leaving tomorrow!
Wow! Time sure has flown the last couple of weeks! I am all moved out of my apartment. My stuff is all over the place - some is at my Mom's house, and some is at Mykl's house. Plus, I have a table at Mykl's sister's house. I am so lucky and thankful for all of the people letting me store stuff everywhere!
I've been ignoring my wedding plans. Most of it can wait until I get back. I've left Mykl with the task of finishing the invitations and sending them out. Then, I'll just have to get busy when I get back! I've got most of the big picture stuff settled. It will just be a matter of buying decorations, figuring out food plans, and that sort of thing.
Tomorrow evening I will be flying out of St. Louis, stopping in Atlanta, then spending a long 9 hours and 45 minutes on a flight to Santiago. I was able to put the audiobook of the fourth Harry Potter on my mp3 player, so that should help me pass the time! Plus, I'm supposed to be sleeping then, so I may attempt to do so. I had such a hard time sleeping on the way to Spain though that I'm not sure how successful I will be. I'm planning on not getting much sleep tonight - maybe that will help! This time I will have an inflatable pillow that goes around my neck. Fancy!
If anyone needs to contact me, the easiest and cheapest way will be to e-mail me at jacobs718@missouristate.edu. If you are just dying to hear my voice (like so many of you are! Heh just kidding) than you can e-mail me or call my mom to get my phone number. The time difference isn't too crazy this time, so you should be able to call anytime.
I can't believe I'm going to study abroad again! I've been enjoying the nice weather today. I'm sure I'll be missing it by this time Thursday when I feel the winter weather. I hate winter! Oh well, winter won't be too bad there I suppose. I'm excited about trying new foods again, and practicing my Spanish. I will be taking classes during the morning until around 1:00, and then I'll be free the rest of the day unless I can arrange a volunteer opportunity. I'm hoping to do a little bit of traveling, but my funds are a bit limited. I may only get to visit one or two other cities. Hopefully I'll get to go skiing! Chile is well known for their great skiing conditions (most of their country is mountainous for goodness sake!).
Well, this is getting long (again). I will probably be posting again this weekend sometime. I start classes Friday! Eeek!
I've been ignoring my wedding plans. Most of it can wait until I get back. I've left Mykl with the task of finishing the invitations and sending them out. Then, I'll just have to get busy when I get back! I've got most of the big picture stuff settled. It will just be a matter of buying decorations, figuring out food plans, and that sort of thing.
Tomorrow evening I will be flying out of St. Louis, stopping in Atlanta, then spending a long 9 hours and 45 minutes on a flight to Santiago. I was able to put the audiobook of the fourth Harry Potter on my mp3 player, so that should help me pass the time! Plus, I'm supposed to be sleeping then, so I may attempt to do so. I had such a hard time sleeping on the way to Spain though that I'm not sure how successful I will be. I'm planning on not getting much sleep tonight - maybe that will help! This time I will have an inflatable pillow that goes around my neck. Fancy!
If anyone needs to contact me, the easiest and cheapest way will be to e-mail me at jacobs718@missouristate.edu. If you are just dying to hear my voice (like so many of you are! Heh just kidding) than you can e-mail me or call my mom to get my phone number. The time difference isn't too crazy this time, so you should be able to call anytime.
I can't believe I'm going to study abroad again! I've been enjoying the nice weather today. I'm sure I'll be missing it by this time Thursday when I feel the winter weather. I hate winter! Oh well, winter won't be too bad there I suppose. I'm excited about trying new foods again, and practicing my Spanish. I will be taking classes during the morning until around 1:00, and then I'll be free the rest of the day unless I can arrange a volunteer opportunity. I'm hoping to do a little bit of traveling, but my funds are a bit limited. I may only get to visit one or two other cities. Hopefully I'll get to go skiing! Chile is well known for their great skiing conditions (most of their country is mountainous for goodness sake!).
Well, this is getting long (again). I will probably be posting again this weekend sometime. I start classes Friday! Eeek!
Friday
Less than two weeks to go!
Woohoo! The trip is coming up so fast! Yesterday I finished my last three finals, and I feel like a free woman now. Right now I am working on packing up my apartment since I'll have to be all moved out before I leave for Chile.
On to more exciting news - I got some information about the family that I will be staying with! Their last name is Otarola Arce. My señora and señor are both in their fifties, and they have two daughters - one is 29, and the other is 16. It sounds like I might end up with my own room, which would be fabulous! They live in a part of Santiago called Las Condes, which is apparently a very nice part of town that is considered to be the financial district. I even found the street that I will live on (Luz - which means "light") on a map in a library book. It's right next to the U.S. Embassy, according to the map.
When I look at pictures of Santiago, it kind of reminds me of Denver because it is right next to a mountain range. I love mountains! If I had to choose between going to the beach, and going to the mountains, I would definately choose mountains. They just take my breath away!
Thursday
Here we go again!
That's right, another season of blogging! This time, I will be studying in Santiago, Chile for a month during the month of June. Woohoo! Needless to say, this blog won't have nearly as many postings, and probably less pictures than last time. I decided to change my blog location because this one is way easier to use! My old blog is still up and running for any old-times who still want to read about my fantastic adventures in Europe last summer.
Hopefully I will get to do a little bit of traveling while I am down south, but my funds are limited so there is no telling what will happen. Hopefully I'll get to visit Valparaiso (just pretend there's an accent over the last i) or maybe even Buenos Aires, Argentina. We shall see!
Many people are surprised when they discover that when it's Summer here, it is Winter in Chile (and the rest of the Southern Hemisphere). So instead of bringing swimsuits and shorts, this summer I will be packing sweaters and coats. It looks like my attempts to pack less this time may be in vain because sweaters take up a lot more room in a suitcase than swimsuits or tee shirts! I hate winter, but Chile's not supposed to be too cold. I thought it would be at first, because one website boasted that Santiago gets down to zero degrees at the lowest - but they meant zero degrees Celsius (or around 32 degrees Fahrenheit). However, I did hear that most places don't have central heating. I'm sure I'll make due - what doesn't kill me will make me stronger! (Or at least make me come back to South America in December instead of June!)
This summer is bound to be a crazy one. I will be leaving May 30 (right after I finish finals and moving out of my apartment). During my first week back, I will be celebrating both the 4th of July (which I missed last year!) and my brother's wedding. Then, I will spend the rest of the summer consumed in my own wedding plans, which will hopefully result in a beautiful and unstressful August 4th wedding for Mykl and me. We'll honeymoon somewhere (Mykl's surprising me), have a week or two to get settled, and then Mykl and I will start school again.
Many people think I'm crazy for trying to do all of this in one summer. I probably am. But I don't want to pass up the chance to study abroad again - especially when I've been awarded a scholarship that will cover the expenses. I love experiencing other cultures. I love traveling, and practicing my Spanish. It is an exhilarating experience that makes me feel like a more complete person.
That's all for now. It's late and I should probably be sleeping. Those of you that have read all of this deserve a gold star or a cookie or a tasty strawberry (for those dieters out there).
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