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