What are the chances?

View from the side window of my house.

Wow. This week has flown by. I'm finally settled in with my family, I've registered for my classes, and I'm starting to get my bearings. In short, Valparaiso is starting, just starting, to feel like home.

You may wonder from whence came the inspiration for my title, so let me tell you about friday morning. Friday was one of the six excursions that ISA has arranged for all the students-- a simple, half day reconaissance of Valparaiso. Our pack of gringos walked around downtown Valpo and meandered towards the harbor where we took a super-touristy boat ride. Granted, the views of the city from the water with the mountains in the background are impressive, but the whole thing was a bit hokey nonetheless. Oh, before I forget, I saw a submarine cruising through the bay on my way to school. It was sweet. Anyway, we got to see the shipping docks, and a couple of battleships moored in the harbor, and everyone took a lot of pictures.

After the boat ride, we walked a couple blocks to one of the many ascensores (a kind of furnicular that carries people up the steep hills from the city to the housing developments) and rode it up to the top where there is a beautiful view of the harbour. This particular ascensor was very old and rickety, and only twelve people were allowed on at one time. Made almost entirely from wood, it had the feel and smell of a large sauna. The floorboards had gaps in them, and we could see the ground about 20 feet below. When it moved, the boards in the walls would sideslip past each other and creak. As we ascended in our ascensor, we joked about the fact that the whole setup probably hadn't been inspected since the '60s, and wouldn't it be funny if the cable snapped and the whole thing plummeted down the hill into the station below. (It should be mentioned that all means of transportation in Chile have a considerable level of risk...the gondola we rode in Santiago ran into the branches of at least fifteen trees hard enough to make the whole thing swing vigorously, not to mention walking or riding the micros.) But our trusty ascensor, although it huffed and puffed and jerked once or twice to keep us on our toes, brought us safely to the top. The summit was a tourist trap, and after 15 minutes we piled back into the ascensor in sets of twelve to go back to the school for lunch. I boarded the ascensor with the first group.

As we descended, we kept joking about the cable breaking, or the floor collapsing, or any number of ways that the rickety toboggan could bring an even dozen of us to a sticky end. We were about 10 feet from the station at the bottom when the car jolted sideways. No problem; it happened on the way up. Immediately following that jerk, however, the entire car dropped about 12 inches and began to slide sideways off the track, inspring a chorus of screams and curses. Luckily for us, our fall was abruptly terminated when the car slammed into the boarding station. It was, to say the least, a little unnerving. We sat in the car for another10 minutes waiting for the rescue party (walking around caused the car to shift on the track, so we stayed put in the interest of low blood pressure) which finally arrived in the form of a crusty old man and a beat up ladder. (The track at this part was only about 10 feet off the ground.) If the car had derailed in the middle of the track, we would have fallen 20-30 feet sideways. The attendant at the top informed the rest of our group that the "electicity had cut out" and told them to take the stairs down.

Whew. Although it's not as adrenaline pumping as an ascensor deraileur, I signed up for my classes on wednesday. At the moment I'm taking 7, but I will drop at least 2 after I figure out which two I'm likely to fail. Currently I'm enrolled in three classes with foreigners: Spanish grammar, Written Spanish, and Spanish communication and culture. I´m also enrolled in four classes with chilean students, two of which I will drop: Geography of Chile, The formation of the hispanoamerican culture, Precolombian culture in texts and images, and Latin American culture in Texts and Images. I also signed up for social dancing, intercambio (speaking with a chilean student for 30 minutes in spanish and 30 minutes in english), tenis, and ping-pong.

Here's some photos.

Mi familia chilena. From left to right Emily (an American who was here for the summer and is leaving monday), mi hermano (brother), mi mama, and her sister who lives nearby












Derailed?











Yes.













Gringos.












Scared gringos.














The ascensor.
















ya me voy

Andrew

Where is it? How much? What did you say?

So it turns out that people in Chile speak much faster that people in Mexico. I very seldom understand any question the first time it is asked, and sometimes even two or three repetitions are insufficient to make me understand. It´s like every person I speak to is driving a Ferrari and I´m stuck with a swaybacked horse and a buggy with a rusty, broken, and ungreased axle. I have been watching movies on tv in Spanish every night to help my listening comprehension, but so far I still only catch small pieces of conversations. Ah well.

It has rained now for the past 36 hours, at least. It´s not the type of rain that comes and goes, like Colorado, nor is it the constant drizzle of the pacific northwest. It´s intermittently pouring and gusting wind, or calm and drizzling. Yesterday I walked from my house into downtown Viña and just cruised around for about 1.5 hours, and by the time I returned home I was absolutely drenched (I was even a little wet under my waterproof jacket). It was good to get out of the house and get my bearings though. Next time, I will bring an umbrella.

I´m signing up for classes in about .5 hour, so I have to go. Hope all is well at home.

ya me voy
Andrew

Coming to Valparaíso

¡Hola amigos! I´ve finally arrived with my host family, in Viña del Mar. Viña del Mar is about 7 minutes by bus from downtown Valparaíso (pronounced val-par-ah-EE-so----say it fast) and is the more "touristy" side of the town. The two towns are distinguishable only to the locals--the entire area between the two is fully developed. But i´m getting ahead of myself.

The past couple days in Santiago were very cloudy, but today the clouds disappeared and took the smog with them. When we woke up, the sun was shining and for the first time we could see the mountains clearly. They are very stunning when not viewed through a veil of soot. We checked out of the hotel and spent the afternoon at a market on the other side of Santiago. It was too expensive for my taste so it was a little boring. Our bus was supposed to leave from the market for Valparaíso at 3pm, but the driver of our luggage truck locked the keys in the car and we were forced to wait for an extra hour while he fished at the lock with a string and hanger.

We arrived in Valparaíso, at PUCV (the university) where all of our host families were waiting. Being a little nervous seemed to be the status quo, and not wanting to stand out, I pretended to be nervous also (*wink wink*). I think everyone felt a bit like sheep up for auction (or slaves, if you´re feeling morbid). Turns out all that worrying was unnecessary because my host family ROCKS! My Chilean mother, (mi mama Chilena) is very very welcoming, and helpful, and I felt at home almost right away. We drove with her brother-in-law to the house (her sister lives across the street) to the house. Here I met Francisco, (her son, my hermano chileno) who is also very friendly. I don´t know him very well yet, but we had a good discussion about microbes and oil spills yesterday. He also taught me some Chilean slang such as "carrete = party" and "bacan y superbacan = cool, and very cool respectively," both very important. He is not in school this semester, but he studies astronomy and another discipline which I have forgotten. Both Francisco and mi mama chilena speak enough English to help me out with occasional words, but neither of them is fluent.

Those of you who have visited South America (or Costa Rica for that matter) may remember that the food in the restaurants leaves something to be desired. When we were in Santiago, I was pretty sure the food was going to make this semester a rough go. However, that fear was allayed when I ate dinner last night. Mi mama chilena can cook! The food for every meal so far has been very good.

The house is very nice as well. It is fairly large, and I have my own room with a desk, chair, bed closet, TV, and dresser. Francisco lives across the hall. Like many Latin American countries, there is a large concrete wall separating the house from the street. There is no central heating, so the house is as cold as, or colder that outside. There are a LOT of stray dogs here, and they howled last night from 11pm until I fell asleep. I think I´ll get used to that pretty quickly.

I felt like a kindergartener today, because mi mama took me to school, and Fransico picked me up. Also, mi mama packed me a lunch to take with me. However, I would be very lost were it not for their help. The micros (busses) are incomprehensible to me. All in all though, today was boring as sin...lots of people from the university talking...and talking....................and talking..........in spanish...........and I´m glad it´s over. Oh, did i mention we took a written exam? Anyway, I´m getting carpal tunnel so I´m going to write more about Viña and my school tomorrow. Hopefully I´ll be able to post some pictures soon as well.

ya me voy
Andrew

Another day in Santiago

¡Hola amigos! Today we had more sightseeing in Santiago. First, we got on a giant tour bus and drove to a winery, Viña Cousiño-Macul. The winery was started in 1856 (i think) by a family who made wine for communion. Eventually, two brothers of the family travelled to France and brought back European grapes: Merlot, Cabernet, Piñot, etc. With these they began to produce and sell wine both in Chile and to export, and were very successful. When all the european grapes were infected by pathogens years later, the Europeans were forced to buy their grapes back from the Chileans, who had the only uninfected strains in the world. The company is still owned and run by the family to this day, and the wine can be purchased in 42 countries worldwide. The number one purchaser is the United States, so i suggest you look for Cousiño-Macul in your local wine shop.

After the winery tour, we visited the house of Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet of the 1970´s, who died around the time when Pinochet seized control of the government from Salvador Allende. (Neruda´s death was unrelated to the takeover; he had prostate cancer.) His house was very creative, and was fashioned after a boat, because of Pablo´s fascination with the sea. For instance, one of the floors is intentionally warped to simulate walking on board a ship. Also, he had a stream running through his house. The house was built in Santiago for his mistress, Matilde, whom he was deeply in love with, and eventually married. He had two other houses, one in Isla Negra and another which is in Valparaíso.

Although I´m having a great time, I can´t wait to get out of "sightseeing-tourist" mode and get settled in with my host family. Tomorrow is our last day in Santiago, and we leave at 3 pm for Valparaíso to meet our host families. I am very excited. I have to leave for another orientation meeting (this one is titled "school and dating" so it should be more interesting). Hope all is well.

ya me voy
ANdrew

¡Bienvenidos a Chile!

¡Hola amigos, estoy in Santiago, Chile! So much has happened since I arrived yesterday, I hardly know where to begin. My flight from Denver to Atlanta was uneventful, and I arrived almost 5 hours prior to my expected depature to Santiago. I knew that there were 13 other students in my exchange program on the flight, so I began looking for likely suspects once I arrived at the terminal. I approched a likely suspect, about my age wearing a Boston t-shirt, and asked if he was visiting Chile. He introduced himself as Jose, a Chilean student who had studied in the the U.S. for five months and was returning home. He was very friendly, and probably a little bored, so we talked for about 30 minutes. The flight was an hour delayed, but when we boarded I sat next to a Methodist preacher from Bolivia who was also very friendly. He came to Chicago 11 years ago for a second degree, and has lived in the States ever since. He was very friendly, and helped with my Spanish a little bit. (Turns out that the spanish word for girlfriend "novia" means "fiance" in Chile, and the word for girlfriend is "polola"...no wonder Jose thought It was strange for me to leave Kelsey behind). The flight was pleasant and I slept most of the time.

The other ISA students and I were picked up at the airport by Lizette, who is our guide to Santiago for the next few days. There are 29 of us all together, and 29 gringos walking through the heart of Santiago is quite a sight to see. (we get a lot of looks.) We drove in a van to the hotel and rested until lunch. After lunch we visited Cerro san Cristobal, which is a huge hill in the middle of downtown Santiago. We took a furnicular up, and rode a gondola down. At the top is a huge statue of Mary (probably 50 feet tall) built by the Spaniards. The view from the top of the hill was incredible. To the east are the snow-covered chilean alps and to the west are more mountains. Everything else is city. From the top of the hill, Santiago stretches as far as the eye can see in every direction. It is a HUGE city, and contains 5 million people, one-third of the country´s population. The pollution, unfortunately, is very bad. The river that runs through the city is little more than a soggy wastebasket, and the smog obsures the view from the top of Cerro san Cristobal. Ugh. After arriving back at the hotel, the group split up. Myself and several others visited the grocery store (which was very crowded at 9:30 pm) to buy bread, cheese and wine. I paid 1,029 pesos for a bottle of wine (the exchange rate is 1 USD : 540 pesos so that´s about 2 dollars) and it was very good. We ate our bread and cheese, and went to bed, exhausted, at about 10:30.

Today has been all sightseeing. We watched the changing of the guard at the Palacio Presedencial La Moneda, and afterwards got a tour of the building. The tour guide spoke in rapid-fire Spanish and I understood about 8 percent of what he said. Crap. La Moneda means ¨coins " in spanish, and apparently the building got it´s name because when the building was consructed bythe Spaniards, it was intended to be a mint. Us taking a tour of the Palacio Presidencial is the equivalent of showing up at the White House and having a look around. The rest of the day has been relatively uneventful, and now I´m just killing time until an orientation meeting (three hours of it) this evening. Augh.

All in all I have really enjoyed my time here so far. The people are friendly and welcoming (and willing to put up with my linguistic blunders) and very polite. Everyone is dressed very nicely. For instance the waiter at our (not fancy) restaurant was wearing a full-on suit. Even the guys who polish shoes for 30 cents look downright classy most of the time. Crossing streets is another matter altogether. If you are in the crosswalk when the walk signal is red, you will be flattened by a city bus at 40 mph. Oh, did I mention that there is no notice that the signal will turn red sometimes? It goes directly from green to red.

Well I have to be going, but I hope everyone is doing well at home!

ya me voy
Andrew

Here goes nothing...

Well, I leave for the airport in about 7 hours, so there's no turning back now! I'm fairly exhausted from packing all day, but I'm pretty confident I have everything I need.

My flight leaves denver at 12:15 and I make a 5 hour layover in Atlanta before heading 9 hours south to Santiago, Chile. I am excited, and a little nervous, but I can't wait to set foot on Chilean soil.

I don't know how long it will be until I can update the blog again, but hopefully the hotel in Santiago has internet access so it will only be a couple days. Well, it's almost 1:30 so I think I'll head to bed. Adios, y hasta luego amigos! Es un gran aventura!

ya me voy,
Andrew

Three Days and Counting

The reality of this trip is finally beginning to set in. I've had a bit of trouble grasping the caliber of this adventure until this point, but now that my flight departs in three days, I am beginning to understand. For instance, it just occurred to me that my verbal Spanish is absolutely horrendous! I think I will probably offend everyone I speak to in the next few months.

Packing is another story all together. There are a lot of things I really want to do in Chile, for instance fishing, hiking, camping, skimboarding, etc. and each of these requires a certain amount of gear. In short, I'm walking a fine line between bringing enough equipment that I can do the things I want and inundating my host family with rubbish.

Speaking of my host family, I finally received word of who I will be living with for the next 5 months. My host family consists of a mother and her 20 year old son who is attending university. The house is 15-20 minutes from the university in Valparaiso by bus, and an 8 minute walk from downtown Vina del Mar. Vina and Valparaiso are very closely intertwined, with Valparaiso being the older town and Vina being contrastingly more modern.

ya me voy
Andrew