School is alright, a bit boring honestly. Philosophy class consists of zoning out to a professor who speaks so fast that it sounds like he is speaking in tongues. Thank goodness it is easy to find Descartes in English on the internet, but that is the class I am most nervous about. My Lit class is more interesting, the professor is easy to understand and we are covering a lot of material that I have already learned about in Latin American history classes, so its nice to be able to understand what is going on. I just had my first quiz here in that class, and although I know I probably did not Ace it, I think it went alright. I think I am most nervous about the Spanish- but I have a feeling they will grade us a little easier than the Chileans in that aspect. Isabel's class is interesting, she is pretty unorganized but the topics are good. Sometimes it is hard because the class is 3 hours long on Thursday afternoons, when none of us really want to do anything. Sometimes we have decent discussions, but most of the time we sit around and make faces at each other because #1 We sit in a big circle and #2 Isabel is so spastic sometimes that its hard to follow where she is going. I think my service work is going to be the best part of that class, and I will probably get more out of that than anything!
I went through hell trying to find a place to do my service work... After I had my heart set on Infocap we found out that there were no more spots left for volunteers. So a few of us were left to fend for ourselves. Isabel was not much help, so after a few weeks of phone calls and e-mails I ended up at Hogar de Cristo which is a huge umbrella organization for service work in Chile. I am working at the women's shelter, which I think will be different than anything I have done before.
It has about 100 beds where women can spend the night with their children. Four meals a day are provided, although it is encouraged that in between meals and during the day they women are out of the shelter and working, or at least trying to find jobs and affordable housing. They come to the shelter for various reasons- homelessness, domestic abuse, violence, health problems, etc. So far I have only been there twice, but I really like it. Since it was the middle of the day on my first visit, there weren't many women in the shelter- only about 10 and a few children, so I felt like there wasn't much to do. The majority of my time will be spent conversing with the women- which I consider to be the most important thing anyway. However, in the future I think I will go a little later in the day so that I can help serve dinner and then talk with more women. It was a little rough the first day since there weren't many women to talk to, and some of them were really hard to understand. The second time I went later and was able to help serve tea and play with some of the kids who were around after school. I met a girl who is the same age as me and has two sons- one of them is 3 and lives in another shelter somewhere, and the other son was probably the cutest thing I have ever seen! The young woman doesn't have a job or a place to live right now, and I hope that when she knows me more she will open up about her situation. Right now I will just try to be a friend- although sometimes that is hard to do when you cannot understand what someone is saying! There were some familiar faces from the first visit, and it was nice to have somewhat established relationships, and I think the women were really happy to see me again as it doesn't seem like there are a ton of volunteers. I am really excited to get to know some of them a lot better, and hopefully gain a deeper understanding of what it is like to live in poverty in Chile.
Otherwise I have not been doing anything terribly exciting. Weekends are spent with friends going out to bars or to parties at people's apartments. I have also spent more time with my extended host family, either here at our apartment, or at other family members' houses. It has been great practice for my spanish, and I also really am starting to feel like a part of the family, and I think it will be hard to say goodbye to everyone in July (probably for the last time).
I was FINALLY able to meet Macarena (my host sister) since she had a few things to take care of in Santiago before flying to the states for a few weeks to visit her friends. She lives and works at a hotel in San Pedro de Atacama which is a BEAUTIFUL town in the north of Chile that I really want to visit before I leave, its expensive though so hopefully I can figure that out! Anyway, Maca is really laid back, and fun and it has been great having her around. She lived in Vail, Colorado for a year and a half so her English is really good, and she loves all things USA so we always have a lot to talk about. When she is in town we have a big family dinner, so its been really fun to just hang out as a family, because otherwise we all get busy with our own lives.
May 1st was Labor Day here so we had off of school on Thursday, and a lot of the exchange students went out of town for a week or so. I thought that I didn't have enough funds to go that week since I am planning on a few trips later this month and in June- but I didn't realize how BORING it would be around here without my friends! I hung out with my friend who I met while traveling and some of the people in his volunteer organization, which was fun, and luckily Kait was still in town. Her parents came to visit for 5 days so I was able to meet them for lunch one day which was a lot of fun. It has been great meeting people's parents or friends who come to visit and share Chile with them, but it has also been really hard for me because I know that I don't get to show any of my family or friends from home how life in Chile is. I know it is ridiculously expensive to fly here, but it would still be nice to show off my life in Santiago, and introduce Judith and Francisco to my family in the states. I think also since I have been gone for four months (by far the longest I have ever been away from home) I am dealing with missing people. But do not fret, I am not moping around missing everyone (well maybe on the inside :-P) but I am continuing to love life down here! I hung out with Kait and the family a bit more, and one night Kait and I got sushi and made brownies (her parents brought box mix- something they are tragically lacking down here) and split a bottle of wine while watching Amadeus on her computer. It was a total "gringa" night, something that we would have done with our friends at home and it was a really nice change of pace.
The next day I had made plans to go to Cajon de Maipo with Jaimie and Ela (some other girls in the program from Loyola who I haven't spent much time with) but ended up buying bus tickets with the girls and Dan (another student from Loyola) to go to Valdivia for the weekend. I probably wouldn't have chosen to go somewhere I had already been if it wasn't completely boring in Santiago last week! We booked our tickets for that night and went out for a nice lunch at a steak restaurant around school. The weekend was really relaxing and it was great getting to know them better- after February people kind of formed "groups" who we hang out with, not that we don't like the other people in the group, its just more comfortable to stick with the people we KNOW we get along with. It was really nice to spend time them, and we got to know each other pretty well as Sunday was rainy and full of restaurants and get-to-know each other games (would you rather... - its amazing how many possibilities there are in that game!). Valdivia is really pretty- with a river running through it and surrounded by tons of foliage, and since it is autumn here the trees were all changing and it was BEAUTIFUL, definitely a change of pace from Santiago. It would have been nice to spend more than two days there, but since we left so late we didn't really have much of a choice. It is also getting colder in Chile, so its not as convenient to be traveling without any specific destination when you are cold and wet.
This is a really brief update on what I have been doing, so please post a comment or e-mail me if you have any questions, or updates on your lives! It is always great to hear from home as I miss you all!
I am planning on going to Buenos Aires in a couple of weeks, so there are sure to be more exciting stories for that!
I hope everyone is doing well, and that finals go smoothly!
much love from Chile!
Here are some pics from Valdivia:
Kuntsmann Brewery!
A few artistic fotos by Dan since he has a much better camera than I do!!
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