Back to Studenting

These last couple days of classes have gone pretty uneventfully - which is totally fine with me.  My classes go Monday through Thursday and are an hour and fifteen minutes each.  Mondays and Wednesdays are my long days; I catch the bus at 8 a.m. and stay till 5 ish.  Alice packs me lunch for those days since I don't have much time between classes to come back.  Yesterday I got two sandwiches: one with a couple slices of cheese and the other with ham and butter.  Yep, butter.  Haha she said later that she wasn't sure about what I liked so she just packed the two.  Tuesdays and Thursdays I have night classes, so that's kind of a downer.  But I get all morning and afternoon free so it works out.

It is so much colder than I imagined it would be.  I mean, I guess it doesn't seem like 40s-50s weather would be all that bad, but with no central heating and a giant window-wall, things get pretty chilly at night and in the morning; I can usually see my breath when I get out of the shower at night.  To give you an idea, this is what I need to keep warm at night:

• Pajamas - shorts, sweatpants, long sleeve shirt, hoodie 
• Six blankets - at least four of which are heavy
• The little blanket that I took from the airplane wrapped around my feet
• Comforter covering my head entirely

Once I'm situated, I do not move; the sheets get too cold wherever I'm not touching.  


I was underprepared for the cold and only brought a few jackets and hoodies, so I met up with Marie and her host family yesterday to go to the mall to find a cheap coat.  On the way we stopped at a Casa de Cambio where so we could exchange some money, but they only change cash and wouldn't accept my card.  Judith, Marie's host mom, is so sweet and took me to an ATM to take out a few pesos there to hold me over (since you don't get as good of an exchange rate), but my card still wasn't working.  After several tries at several ATMs, we gave up.  But Judith wasn't satisfied; she insisted on taking me to the bank this morning so I could take out dollars to exchange at the Casa de Cambios.  Of course, as Alice would say, Murphy's Law took over and everything that could go wrong went wrong.  The first bank we hit was undergoing remodeling and the machine for taking out/exchanging dollars was gone.  The next bank we went to had me try the ATM first and, when that didn't work, another one to make sure it wasn't just a matter of the machine being out of pesos.  Finally, we made our way to the counter, assured that I could get some dollars more directly.  Then I was asked for my passport.  I pulled out a copy, but the attendant quickly told me that I could only take out money if I had the original.  So no money for me.  Fortunately, before I left this morning I drew out of my secret stash that I was saving for the airport in December/in case of emergency, so I went back to the Casa de Cambios and got a little bit of cushion cash.  Judith, bless her heart, offered to take me back to the bank tomorrow, but I told her that I'm covered for now and it wouldn't be necessary.  Throughout it all, though, I'm glad that I had the chance to talk with Judith and her two daughters (if I could spell - or even pronounce - their names I would write them down haha).  She's really helpful and has a lot of just life experience that I'd love to tap into.  

It was a "día agitado" (agitated day) for Alice here at the house, too.  One of the showers has been clogged and I think the water heater is going out (at least it was starting to feel that way....ouch) so a plumber came over.  While I was out galavanting among banks and all, one guy was here for like four hours and finally just left because he didn't know what he was doing.  Another guy came around lunchtime and was working till way after I left for class.  Allegedly things should be fixed now, but we'll see what happens when I shower tonight...

School and Viña

Yesterday we got the official tour of Adolfo Ibáñez and the rundown of the school and general safety tips. The campus is smaller than I'd anticipated, but the architecture is super interesting. There are four buildings (A, B, C, and D. They like to keep us college kids on our toes, ya know.) that each serve their own unique purpose.

Also, Christina left to go back to Texas yesterday, leaving me her [far more spacious] room, outlet converter, and cell phone. One whole wall is a window, which has a nice view but also means that it gets super cold and really bright in the morning. I woke up this morning thinking that I'd turned on my lamp in my sleep (cause I do stuff like that....yep.) but it's just the window haha.

After Christina left, I met Alice's 4-year-old granddaughter, Florencia (a.k.a. "La Flo"). I was getting my stuff ready to move into my new room when Flo walked in, sat on my bed, and announced that she had something to tell me: She didn't know who to play with. And thus commenced an entire afternoon dedicated to reading, coloring, and playing pirates with Flo. I also met Tia Lilian, but I have no idea where her relation is in the family aside from being an aunt of some sort.

Today was fairly eventful. Went to Union Church where a college professor preached as a guest speaker on showing true love and commitment to Christ and his body. We had lunch with him and his wife after the service. This guy is actually Irish, but met his Chilean wife at school in California and moved here after. After lunch, we went on a tour around Viña along with the rest of the students in the exchange program. It was kind of redundant since we Grove City folk took pretty much the same route to get to church this morning.  Even so, it was nice to take our time to check out the park, see the "famous clock" of Viña (is it bad that I'd never heard of it?), pass by a couple castles (the one in the picture is a museum now, the other is used by the police force), and stop to chill at a McDonald's.

 Sea lions by the castle

Estrecho Maga Maga where it meets the Pacific

Made for a long day of walking, and I think we've all agreed that it's time for a hot shower and bed. I'm still working on figuring out my class schedule and when and where I need to get on the bus, but it looks like I'll be able to buddy up with other gringos throughout the undertaking. School starts tomorrow!

Day 1

I am in Chile! I'd like to say that my trip here was uneventful, but after some weird visa hitches I ended up having to change my departure from Chile to an earlier date that complied with the 90-day rule. Now that I'm here, I'll have to re-change my reservation back to the original December date. Visas. Psh.

I did get on the plane though, which is what mattered most. I was the first to arrive in Atlanta and hung out by the gate as the nine other Grove City students trickled in. It was kind of weird to be with grovers in that context, but I got over it pretty quickly as, one-by-one, I was reunited with familiar faces. The nine-and-a-half hour flight was made bearable by sitting among friends, and we spent a good deal of time looking over the list of Chilean slang that we received last semester. The rest of our time was devoted to sleeping and dissecting plane food.


Santiago as we descended

We arrived in Santiago around 8:15 a.m. and established ourselves firmly as the group of lost, obnoxious Americans at every possible turn. Finally out of customs, we met up with students from other universities who are also attending Adolfo Ibáñez. One of the guys from the University said that there will be around 80 U.S. exchange students this semester - and that's not including any other countries. An hour and a half in a bus brought us to Viña del Mar, where a horde of Chilean hosts massed outside of the bus. Some had signs with names, others were waving lists, and I'm pretty sure there were some who were just there for the spectacle. Eventually I located my host, Alicia Cowell. Despite the English last name, Alice (as she prefers to be called) is fully Chilean and refuses to speak to me in English. She lives with her husband Antonio in a "departamento," which is pretty much an apartment. Also inhabiting the depto are Paula, a Chilean student, and Christina (sp?), a U.S. exchange student who leaves tomorrow. Another girl is supposed to come in soon to take her place. I haven't met Antonio, Paula, or Christina yet, as they're all out studying or working. Currently I'm staying in a tiny side room until Christina leaves; then I'll take her room.


My room for tonight

Once I got showered and had lunch with Alice, we walked all around Viña so I could get my bearings and a taste for the place. It's a bustling city right on the Pacific coast packed tight with bakeries, restaurants, stores, more stores, artisan shops, more stores, pharmacies, and people. Alice has spent her whole life here, aside from a few years in Europe, and knows the place inside out. I'm excited to find out where my other friends live in relation to me and see what their take on the city is tomorrow when we meet up for orientation.

Heading Out

Today marks not only the start of a fresh year as a junior at Grove City College, but also the day on which my experiences expand to the southern hemisphere. Today I leave for Viña del Mar, Chile where I will spend the semester studying at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez along with eight other Grovers. Contrary to popular belief, my time in Central America strikes me surprisingly insufficient as far as preparing me for Chile; South America is a completely different culture, complete with unique holidays, customs, attitudes... even the Spanish is different. So, for as excited as I am, I fully anticipate the next 4-5 months to be humbling, to say the least.

Just for some context, Viña del Mar is a coastal town in central Chile located some miles northwest of Santiago (the capital) and, as their seasons are opposite those of North America, I'll be there during their winter/spring. Not to say that it'll be anything like Grove City winters; 50-60s on the beach? Yeah, I can handle that. UAI is a Catholic university and I'll be taking three Spanish courses and a film course. I will be living alone with a host family (as of yet unknown to me), but I know at least four other people from Grove City, so I'll have a crowd to share in the culture shock.

God willing, I'll actually keep up with this thing and post regular updates so you guys have some idea of where I'm going, what I'm doing, and what I'm learning. Aiming to put up pictures every so often, too... no promises though.

At this point - with minimal packing left to go and no more errands to run - I'm ready to skip the waiting and dive into whatever unknown craziness sits on the other side of the terminal.