¡Estoy en Chile...Por Fin!

¡Hola todos! I am so sorry that it took me so long to finally write an “I AM NOW IN CHILE!!!!!” blog post.  I hope that after reading this novel of a post you will forgive me.  I recommend that you pour yourself a cup of coffee and find a comfy chair because this is going to be a long one! Although I have only been here for 6 days, a lot has happened.

My travels started with a flight from Indy to Dallas where I sat next a man who smelled like feet.  It was not a pleasant beginning to my adventure, but thankfully the flight was short and I was able to distract myself from my odorous neighbor by reading through my Chilean travel guidebook.  Side note: We learned that we will have 10 days off between the intensive language course we are taking now and the start of our semester at Pontificia Universidad Católica (La Católica).  The other three WashU girls and I are currently considering our options for travel during that time and are leaning towards Buenos Aires, Argentina or Peru. ¿Bacán, no? (¿Cool, right?)

Anyway, after dinner I boarded my plane for Santiago.  Knowing that this flight was going to be a little over 10 hours long, I started praying that the person in the seat next to me would be normal...or at least not smell like feet.  As soon as I sat down, I looked up the aisle at the people boarding and saw a girl about my age with red hair in dreadlocks down to her waist.  She was wearing a large orange felted coat and black and white striped pants.  Although I started to hope that she would pass me and continue down the isle, she put her purse down in the seat next to me and placed her backpack in the overhead compartment close by.  It looked like I was stuck next to the girl with dreadlocks for the next 10 hours. 

One lesson that I have learned in life and continue to learn time and time again is to never judge a book by its cover.  On the plane I learned to never judge a girl by her dreads.  After Brenna sat down I asked her if Santiago was her final destination and I came to discover that she, like me, would be studying in Santiago through her school's program for the next 6 months.  This will be her senior year at Berkley and she, also like me, has come to Chile to learn Spanish and have an adventure.  We talked about the experiences that were to come and shared our fears of the unknown for a few hours.  Brenna even taught me how to get my hair into dreadlocks. Don't worry mom, I don't think it is a look that I can pull off as well as Brenna can. After the long flight, we survived customs and baggage claim together and then parted ways at the exit. She will be taking classes at La Católica too so I will hopefully see her again.   It will be hard to miss those red dreads in a sea of dark brown Chilean hair.

Our resident director and angle here is Evelyn.  She is a Chilean woman that works with WashU and has an office on La Católica's campus.  Her job and passion is to help students integrate into the Chilean culture and she will be assisting us with anything and everything we need while we are here. Upon exiting baggage claim, I knew that I was supposed to find Evelyn so that she could give me a ride to my host family's house.  However, after about 15 minutes of searching for her with no success I started to worry that I was lost and began to tear up (fancy that…I blame it on a combination of my Hamlow genes and sleep deprivation).  I quickly calmed myself down, found a nice woman with a cell phone, and asked if I could borrow it to call Evelyn (thankfully I had written her number down before my flight).  It turned out that Evelyn was drinking coffee in a cafe nearby with the nice man, an old host father of the program, who was acting as our chauffeur for the day.  She felt horrible that she was not outside the doors when I arrived and explained that it had taken the other girls much longer to get through customs and with it being a Saturday morning she expected it would take even longer for me.  Evelyn proceeded to give me 1,000,000 hugs/kisses (Chileans love kisses…more to come on that subject later) and praises for calling her as we took my things to the car.  Needless to say, I immediately felt welcome and loved in Chile.

We then arrived at my home and I was greeted by my host mom, Ale, and my WashU “host sister”, Jamie, who has been completing her Spring semester here for the last 6 months.  Let me pause here to tell you a little about my host family.  I have a mamá (Ale), a papá (Pepe), three sisters (Josefa 17, Belén 28, and Fernanda 31), an abuela (Neny?), a nana/house keeper (Oti), and 50,000,000 primos/tías/tíos (cousins/aunts/uncles).  Everyone except for my oldest sister and the extended family (obvio…its obvio that this mean obvious) live in the house with me.  I love absolutely everything about my host family and I can already tell that they are going to be the most meaningful and memorable part about my semester in Chile! I can already tell that Josefa (Jose) and I are going to be good friends.  She has a lot of patience with me when I don’t understand something in Spanish and is very encouraging when have to pause to think of the words to express what I am trying to say.  Chilean Spanish is pretty different from the Spanish I have learned in the past because there are many Chilenismos (words or phrases that are unique to Chile) and I have found that men, teenagers, and senior citizens are difficult to understand…so basically everyone.  Jose teaches me a few grarbatos (bad words lol) and chilenismos everyday.  Last night we watched the season finale of Mundos Opuestos (Opposite Worlds, a popular reality TV show similar to the Real World on MTV) together while eating cookies that we stole out of the kitchen! I could go on and on about Jose, Oti, Ale, and the rest of the fam, but we will save that for another day. In summary, I HAVE AN AMAZING HOST FAMILY!!!!!!!

I would also like to take a moment to give a big shout out/thank you to Jamie Gottlieb! Like I mentioned above, Jaime is a WashU student who has spent the Spring semester of her Junior year here in Chile and has been living with my family for the past 6 months.  Jaime has been a never ending source of advice and help during the past week despite this being her finales period (this is the end of the 1^st semester at La Católica) and her last few days in Chile. Jaime has helped me get a cell phone, take out money, and learn how to get to and from school (she even drew me a cute little map for the trip there and back).  She has also translated for me when I am clueless as to what someone is saying, ensured me that all the emotions I have been feeling in this first week are normal, and done P90X with me on the floor in her small pieza (room). Basically Jamie has been an angel and I am so blessed to have been able to start this adventure with her by my side. Thanks Jaime! I don’t know how to say this in Spanish, but YOU ROCK!

Now back to the tale of my arrival. After getting to my house and having breakfast, I was told that I could go change and rest.  However, I decided to instead go with mamá, papá, and Jamie to a big outdoor market to buy all of the fresh fruit and veggies for the week.  Although I was tired from the long trip, I was glad that I went! My host dad had a fun time quizzing me on fruit/veggie vocab.  That night, after taking a long siesta, mamá, Jamie, and I met up with Evelyn, the other WashU girls, and their host moms for a welcome dinner.  It was great to meet the other host families, pick the brains of the WashU girls who have been here for 6 months, and finally be reunited with Rachel, Brittany, and Jacquie, the girls that are joining me on this Chilean adventure for the semester. 

The next day, Sunday, we had the rest of the family (and by rest of the family I mean like 15 or more people) over to have lunch in honor of my deceased host grandfather...and my arrival?  It was just a tad bit overwhelming to meet everyone my second day here, but Jaime assures me that she will draw out a family tree and I will learn the names of all my cousins, second cousins, and cousin twice removed in no time. Jaja! Vamos a ver (Haha! We will see about that).  

Monday was my first day of Intensive Spanish Class! Our Profe’s name is Paula and we all like her a lot.  We will be meeting for three hours every weekday for three weeks (except for this coming Monday which is a HOLIDAY…the perks of attending a Catholic University!!!) in order to review grammar, talk about Chilean culture, and learn the gosh darn Chilenismos that make understanding the teenagers gossiping on the subway practically impossible.  I have now come to terms with the fact that the summer, or what little of one I had considering I spent it studying for the MCAT, is officially over.  We have already had to give a presentation on the regions of Chile and write an essay in response to a movie called La Nana about the institution of having a housekeeper that raises the children and manages the house while the parents are at work.  Although this class is going to include a bit of work, it is really interesting and I know that it is going to be extremely helpful!  Yesterday Evelyn gave us another assignment that will be due in a month and count as 10% of our grade in a course we will be taking during the semester called Cono Sur (The Southern Cone) which is taught by a professor that is really famous here in Chile for his work in literary analysis (I am a tad bit intimidated, but Jamie says he is just a big teddy bear).  The assignment is basically an extended scavenger hunt of sorts in which we will have to go to important places around Santiago and interview people to learn more about religion in Chile, the presence of immigrants, and family life.  Although it is busy work, it will be a great way to get to know both the city and my host family better.

Monday night the group from WashU that has been here for the last 6 months and my group of 4 girls met at my host family’s house to have dinner and celebrate ½ Christmas.  We ate pasta, drank wine, shared our Chirstmas memories, and had a white elephant gift exchange.  I won peanut butter and cookies that I shared with Jose the other night while we were watching TV.  Can you believe that was her first time trying peanut butter, an American staple food?

On Tuesday I got an email that I was assigned a Tandem.  Tandem is a program that my university has where you are assigned a partner and must meet with that partner at least once a week to speak Spanish for half an hour and English for another half hour.  My Tamdem’s name is Paula and we will be meeting up tomorrow after class! She says that she will give me a campus tour and I have promised to help her prepare for her oral exam in her English class next week.  Paula wants to be an English teacher! I think this program is going to be a great opportunity to improve my Spanish and make new friends! Score!

OK, you are probably done with your coffee by now and are starting to get a little tired of reading this post! Stay with me for a few more minutes for a Sparknotes version of my thoughts about Chile.

Things I Love About Chile:

1)     The People!!!

2)     That I receive a minimum of 20 kisses everyday! In Chile you give a kiss to everyone and anyone to say hello and goodbye! Was it weird to kiss my 21-year-old cousin goodbye the other day? No, because it is just what you do here. And by kiss I mean the on-the-cheek type. Gosh what were you picturing?

3)     That it is weird if you don’t go out to a bar/discos/club/salsoteca on the weekends and if you return before 2 am.

4)     Pisco Sours (Pisco is a grape brandy produced in Chile and Jamie bought me my first drink when we went out quickly after dinner last Saturday)

5)     Piscola (Pisco con Coca Cola)

Things About Chile That I Will Have To Get Used To:

1)     There seems to be no standard side to walk on or rule about where to walk.  Although they drive on the right side of the road, that rule does not seem apply to walking on a sidewalk.

2)     Smoke. The people who do not smoke make up the minority in Chile. Even my host dad and host sisters smoke now and then, but thankfully they do it outside.

3)     PDA.  I will probably do a blog post about this topic in the future, but it seems like couples in the metro and in parks don’t really seem to care if anyone sees them locking lips. Let’s just say it is un poco incomodo (a bit awkward…but there really isn’t a good translation for awkward) when you are smashed up against a kissing couple in the morning metro.

P.S. I have mastered the Metro and have made it to and from school by myself twice without getting lost! Tomorrow I have to make my way to the Plaza de Armas to get an ID card that Chile wants us and all Chilean citizen to have. That will be the real test of my metro mastery.

I love and miss you all!

Besos Fuertes,

Claire