#2

1.10.08 Well it has been an eventful couple of days- I can't believe I haven't even been here a week yet! Saturday was a long day. Judith took me to the Feria in the morning which is basically a Farmers Market. It was HUGE, almost 2 blocks long and it was full of vendors trying to sell their produce, fish or underwear (?). We bought about 12 different kinds of fruit and some vegetables- one of which I had never seen before! It looked a little bit like a slice of pumpkin but I don't remember the Spanish name. It was really hot so Judith and I stopped at a tiny Peruvian restaurant where she wanted cold fish. We were served a small salad, a bowl of chicken noodle soup with actual chicken legs in it and a glass liter bottle of coca cola. Then we ordered the fish which was basically fried with the skin and tail still on it. Besides the bones it was pretty good. Then we took a walk into downtown, which is surprisingly pretty empty on the weekends- I mean there were people around, but not nearly as many as during the week. We walked to Plaza de Armas, the main plaza in Santiago where the post office, cathedral and other large buildings are. The Cathedral was magnificent. I don't think anything I say can do it justice. It takes up about a block and is full of gorgeous statues and marble columns, not to mention the spectacular altar. There was a giant Christmas tree in the Plaza, I mean GIANT, that they were starting to take down. Although Plaza de Armas isn't always the best place to be since you can easily be robbed there, I love it. It is full of people and artists and statues and palm trees. We then walked down the main avenue that is for pedestrians only and saw mimes and other street performers who were really impressive. Judith pointed out these young drummers and said they were called something that started with a 'C' (I will ask her again) and that this certain type of drumming was part of their culture and they perform for money to survive and to keep their culture alive. She was very proud to say that they were only in Chile. We then walked by the governmental buildings (which are always surrounded by armed guards) and to an art museum. In total we walked for about 3 hours that day and we were exhausted that evening. I decided to go out with some friends and made plans to meet Alexia (the only other student who lives in Santiago Central) and to pick up Nell at the Metro station by my apartment. The metro is a fantastic form of transportation, but it stops running at 11pm, which is when the night life begins so its hard to coordinate things at night. Judith and her friend, Maria Eliana (who is wonderful, she lives in the apartment below us and teaches classes on Castellano, sewing and CAKE DECORATING, and is a total sweetheart) walked us to the metro station and asked which exit Nell took. I didn't realize there was more than one exit at that metro stop but apparently there were four, so we all split up to look for her. Finally we found her and our first night out commenced. We walked to Avenida Brasil since I knew we could find a good bar there. We then walked up the main part of the avenue looking like lost "gringas" when finally one of the doormen asked what we were looking for. I said we weren't sure, just a good bar and he of course said well this is a good bar, so we decided to go there. We sat in the back of this little bar where the DJ was playing some 80s classics - which are VERY popular down here (along with fanny packs - they are all the rage with young men and women). We each had a Pisco sour - Pisco being the national liquor of Chile which is like a whiskey made from grapes. They were pretty good but since we are all beer girls we ordered a liter bottle of Heineken which we split. We then contacted our friend Peter who was going to the bar that one of his brothers works at. He told us what streets it was on and having no idea how far it was we just started taking of those streets, expecting to get to the bar. Well about 10 blocks later into downtown - which was DEAD at 1am on a Sunday we called him again but his brother said it was still farther. Long story short we walked about 20 blocks through the middle of downtown Santiago past gangs of wild dogs and armed guards in front of the capital to get to a place where we had to pay a COVER of about $8 each in American dollars. I probably wouldn't have stayed but after walking all that way we weren't about to turn back. Plus the only place open around there was a nudie bar and I wasn't really interested in hanging out with creepy Chilean men and naked Chilean women. So we got in to realize it was an indie music club, which is perfect for Peter but wasn't really our scene. We stayed anyways after all the walking and the cover charge and after another beer and a few more people coming in, it was a good time. Apparently there was a popular German DJ there and even though I didn't know a ton of the songs he did a really good job, the music was great. Pretty soon we were all dancing- as much as you can dance to indie music, and then a Chilean guy started chatting with us and we did a little salsa dancing. At about 3:30 it was so crowded and unbearably hot that we decided to go. We tried to call a radiotaxi- the only company that our parents want us to use- but they said it would take an hour! We then decided to call the taxi to my apartment so that Nell could get home to Las Condes which is about a 10 to 20 minute drive away. Then we were three American girls walking through the middle of downtown Santiago at 4 in the morning- a really good idea for the second night there. I tried to ask one of the armed guards outside the governmental building if it was safe for us to walk to my apartment and he said yes, but I am not sure if he really understood what I was trying to say to him. Anyway we made it in one piece, and Judith woke up when we got here and helped us call a radiotaxi again and they arrived shortly and Nell got home safely as well. It was probably the combination of all the walking, the heat, the beer and the time I went to bed, but I slept in VERY late on Sunday. Then Judith and I had lunch- which is the big meal of the day here, and then she took me on the bus all the way up to Las Condes which is the northern most barrio (neighborhood) in Santiago. It was BEAUTIFUL, clearly the wealthiest area of the city. Although, it looked like an upper middle class area in the states. Judith pointed out how wealthy they were because the houses had two or more cars. I made the dumb comment "like the US" not meaning at ALL that the US is all like that, it just seems more common for people to have numerous cars, even some of the lowest classes in the states. There were houses up into the hills and mountains, it is much cleaner than Santiago Central- where I feel like I have to wash my feet every time I come home (I wear sandals all the time). Judith and I stopped at Providencia- a Barrio where most of the students live- and got an ice cream at "Mac" Donalds. That was new, they didn't have an actual menu, just pictures of things, which were mostly all different from what they have in the US. I got a frozen yogurt with bits of chocolate in it, it was weird but good..............1.16.08... I started class the next day, which was a great way to get to know all of the other American students better. Most of us had been on the plane together so we pretty much knew faces, but it was fun to chat about our experiences so far. Its kind of like 3 classes and we are done the last week in January. Basically one is about Grammar and Poetry in Spanish, one is Vocab and literature and the other is Speaking and Culture. The professors are all great and I really like the class so far. It became a tradition that first week to explore the city and get a beer after class. So we went through downtown and into Plaza de Armas and each day was a ton of fun. One of the best days by far was Thursday last week. Nell, Kait and I had to go and explore Quinta Normal for a presentation, which a HUGE park in the city that has museums and ponds and tons of trees, it was beautiful! Then Nell and I went to this little cafe thats hidden away in this little alley way in the middle of the city and hung out and talked all afternoon before venturing into downtown to explore. We were so hungry by 6:30 that we went to this place called Telepizza thinking American-ish food would be a nice change of pace. Little did we know that Telepizza made the worst pizza in the entire world, but we were so hungry we ate it all and laughed at how awful it was the entire time. That is one thing that is kind of a downer here- the food although good and very fresh, has no flavor. Its almost as if they don't believe in spices, and the cheese is sub-par but my Wisconsin taste buds might be biased. Then we met a few people in the plaza in front of the capital building where there was a free show. It turned out to be a play (without dialog) about a ship, there was fire and a pirate ship and it was pretty cool because they moved throughout the crowd. After that we took the metro to meet some people in Providencia- which is a barrio a little northeast of downtown- where we went to a few bars. The second bar we went to had a musician who was playing guitar and singing, and the atmosphere was really laid back. Hyder, one of the guys on our trip, asked him if he knew any Bob Marley, and the guy said he knew Redemption Song, which is my FAVORITE Bob Marley song. All of a sudden Hyder, Kait and I were going up to sing with him in front of the whole bar! At first I was nervous, but then when we got into it we had a lot of fun, we ended up singing a Beatles song with him too. That is by far the craziest thing I've done so far, so I better take it up a notch in February. The musician, Miguel, plays at that bar every week Wed-Sat so since he was awesome, and since the beer is really cheap there, It has become a regular hang out for us. Friday night I met a few girls at an 80s bar- yes it is called "80s". And they play all 80s music and they have a drink for every band you could think of that came out of the 80s. It wasn't very crowded though, which was a bummer, so we didn't want to be the only ones dancing. Then a Chilean guy wanted to talk to us because he knew English, but the conversation turned into half English, half Spanish. He was a policeman in Santiago, and he gave us some good advice about safety and what not, but he was also a bit odd. He seemed like an OK guy, just socially awkward and he wanted to take a photo with us. Soon after that we took cabs home and called it a night. The next morning at 4:30am Judith's cousin picked us up and we drove the 6 hours south to Concepcion which is where most of Judith's family lives. It is GORGEOUS down there! Much cleaner than Santiago and full of hills covered in pine trees that smelled amazing. We got to her niece's house which is on a hill that overlooks the river valley. Soon there were 40+ people there, and they kept telling me that there were many more who couldn't make it. We hung out in the pool for hours, and I got a little burnt but not too badly. I think I answered the same questions about where I am from, what I am studying, how I like Chile, etc. about 50 times. But it was good practice for my Spanish. Everyone was completely nice to me, and I am pretty sure I was hugged and kissed a hundred times. They like to eat A LOT so we had about 7 different courses of snacks which were all different but good. I tried Chilean wine for the first time, which was pretty good, and then one of the aunts made me try "Jote" which is a mix of wine and cocacola- sounds gross but it actually was pretty good! After the party, Judith and I went to her brother Ale's house to spend the night. He and his wife and her mother live in a house that overlooks the port and the view was spectacular. The mother was probably the sweetest old lady I have ever met- she wanted to show me everything and asked me if I liked it or not. I went to mass with them the next day, but was a little embarrassed because I was about a foot taller than everyone around me and didn't know the words in Spanish so everyone could see I wasn't participating. That afternoon they tried to feed me about four times, but eventually I couldn't eat anymore and had to say no! We drove down to the coast to a little beach town to take pictures, a boat tour, and to try some fresh seafood which was AMAZING! We hung out a bit and then Judith and I took an overnight bus home to Santiago. It was sooo uncomfortable because they don't make bus seats for people with long legs and by the time we got home at 6am I was sore and crabby. But, the weekend was wonderful- I love Judith's family, and Concepcion, and it was great practice for my Spanish even though I was pretty frustrated by Sunday night since I hadn't been able to speak English at all and my Spanish is far from perfect!... This week has been pretty uneventful so far. Judith's nephew Rodrigo who is in the Airforce is staying here for a few weeks because he has to be in Santiago until he is stationed south. Monday night I got him to talk for a few hours, he speaks some English so we had a bi-lingual conversation, but he is REALLY shy and I have barely talked to him since. School has been fine, but sometimes it is so hard to concentrate since it is so hot here and everyone else is on vacation! Tonight a few friends and I are going back to the bar with cheap beer and Miguel, and this Weekend we are going North to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar which should be a good time......
Random Stats:............
Dogs roaming the streets in Chile: 700+......
Mullets: 100+..........
Fanny Packs: 60+......
Weird food I have tried: 10+ (And 9 of them involving corn).....
Graffiti: too much to count, but about 80% of it is political which is really cool and different from the Graffiti in the US......


I sure do love it here though, Even if it is a bit dirty in the city and the language can get frustrating at times, I am really glad I am here. It is similar to America yet completely different at the same time. I hope to have more interesting things to say in my next post- feel free to ask questions!