Oh my goodness, my first post from Chile...! It's Thursday night here, which is hard to believe because a) arriving here on Tuesday feels like a week ago, so it definitely does not feel like barely 48 hours have gone by and b) the sun does not start to set until around 9 here, thus making it hard to believe that it's actually 9:45 p.m. as I write this.
After a rocky adjustment health-wise to the difference in food/water/climate, I am feeling almost 100% and thoroughly enjoying getting to know my new classmates and surroundings. The water is safe to drink here but most people do need a few days to let their bodies adjust, so we are advised to stick to bottled water for the first week. By the way, the program staff here (Mark and Rosanna = Academic Co-directors, Danko = Program Assistant, Karina = Homestay Coordinator, Choqui = Spanish education coordinator, Andrea = community work coordinator) are MUY FABULOSOS and I feel very lucky to have such wonderful people running the show here. They are very accessible and friendly and each has a unique background to bring to table.
So right now we are staying at a hotel in Viña del Mar, which is the "twin city" of Valparaiso. They are so close that people who live here can't exactly pinpoint where one ends and the other begins. Yesterday we had a walking tour of Viña during which I was able to buy my adapter--¡muy importante! It will take many more walks (with amigos, of course) to get a better sense of the city, but one of the beaches is a two-minute walk from the hotel and there is a super cool outdoor clock made of flowers that serves as a good point of reference. I haven't taken my own photo of it yet, but here's the first one that I found on Google: http://www.physics.ucdavis.edu/~dwittman/david.wittman.com/reloj.jpg .
Anyway, orientation has basically consisted of activities and presentations about safety, the academic program, homestay know-how, our independent study project (ISP) at the end of the semester, etc. Yesterday we were put in pairs for something called the "drop off" in which each pair had a destination, two slang words to find out about, and a food to eat or at least find out about as well. Mi compañera Brooke and I set off on la micro (the bus) to find La Plaza de Aníbal Pinto (an early Chilean president) in Valpo. It wasn't hard at all to hope on la micro and then ask for directions to the plaza, which was only about 5 blocks from where we got off the bus. The plaza was small but charming and in an area with many shops including heladerias (ice cream shops, mmm) y librerias (bookstores). Brooke and I already knew how to describe an empanada and it was getting pretty warm and sunny outside, so we decided to do a little comida substitution and got our first authentic Chilean ice cream cones instead J . We also talked with Alam, an artist who paints street images and sells them right there in the plaza. Just as everyone had told us about typical Chileans, he was very friendly and eager to talk with us about Valpo and his life there. He showed us that, in a nearby bookstore, they have photos of the plaza through the years starting in 1850! Then it turned out that it was his birthday and he invited us to his birthday party tonight at his house near the plaza. When we told him that we were actually here with a big group of students he said (more or less, in Spanish) "That's okay, bring them too!" Hehehe. Apparently this is not a rare occurrence for gringos in Chile. Obviously we are not heading off to the fiesta, but it was nice of him to be so open and willing to talk with us. I would love to go back and watch him paint and maybe buy one of his smaller sketches as a memento at the end of my time here.
Pues, it's about time to head back for more orientation activities—we meet someone from our host families tonight and I am MUY EMOCIONADA (very excited) for this! Hope all is well with everyone everywhere! Hasta luego!
