Life in Chile is good and not so much different than being in the states. I still love living with Ximena and her family. It's funny, both times when traveling abroad I've always said, "ehh, I really don't want to live with a family. I mean I'm well into my 20's (now fast approaching 30), and it would just be weird to have parents around. I don't want to offend anyone or for things to be weird...I'd rather live in an apartment with other people my age". Let me tell you, that school of thought has totally reversed! I couldn't imagine living with nicer people. They cook me food, try and make conversation, joke with me, make sure I'm safe, wish me safe travels when I leave the house...heck, her mom even brings me fresh baked bread in bed sometimes!! They are genuinely good people and I couldn't imagine living anywhere else during this stay. And of course like living with anyone, parents or whatnot, we have our 'chores' so to speak. We all take turn doing dishes after meals. If I'm running out to head to class, her mom tells me not to worry about mine and takes care of it for me. Once a week we clean the house...her mom cleans the downstairs and Ximena and I take care of our upstairs area. I help her mom iron because out of all the household chores, that's the one she hates the most! The whole situation just works! Oh and I've finally gotten this whole Chilean diet thing down! Their main staples are tomatoes, chicken, avacado, ham and bread. Ximena and I decided to go on a diet together to motivate each other. We started last week and made her mom understand that we don't want a bunch of sweets, I don't want bread all the time and cook with very little oil! I've lost a little over a kilo so far!!
On a funny side note for those who did not hear about this, I did lock myself out of the house once already! Our house is completely gated/fenced and when someone rings the doorbell, they're at the gate. We have a little phone by the door with a camera to see who's there. Her mom always tells me when she leaves to not open the door for anyone and I'm happy to oblige! Well just a little over a week ago I was waiting for my new debit card to come from the states. I was home alone and the doorbell rang. I went to the camera to see if it was the mailman. Now I have no idea if they wear uniforms or whatnot and I saw the man had a bag on his shoulder. I still was scared to open the door so I waited until he walked a couple houses down and then went out to peek outside the gate, leaving the house door open behind me. Next thing I know, the wind catches the door and slams it shut! My keys and cell phone were both inside the house and no one ever informed me of a spare key. Walked all around the house, hoping by some miracle something would be open, but I knew better. This place is locked down like Ft. Knox when her mom leaves, complete with bars over
the downstairs sliding doors and windows. Then I remembered that the window above the stairs was open and plenty big enough for me to crawl through. So I drug the trash can over next to the garage and climbed up the wall in this photo...Then I carefully slide along the outside edge of the top of the garage because the roof of the garage is tin. The
n I made my way over to the window on the far right in this picture...then lowered myself inside on to the landing between the stairs. I was so happy and proud of myself at this point and there was no way I was going to say a word to anybody! Just like a little kid, I thought I had gotten away with something...until the next morning. I wasn't paying attention that I had left dirty footprints on the wall under the window as I was sliding in. That morning her mom had noticed them, asking if they were from me. I couldn't help but laugh and told her what happened. She started laughing and then showed me where the hidden spare key is outside the house...just in case it happens again hahaha!!Life is good and I would say that I'm pretty much accustomed to the daily life and getting where I need to go. I love taking walks and learning the city...I always have my city map with me just in case. Unfortunately I don't walk as much as I would like these days because I seemed to have developed a case of tendonitis on the outer side of my right foot. I bought some anti-inflammatory cream and I try to ice it after I walk for long periods of time but I pretty much had to cut out the walking to campus thing. How can it get better?...they say to cut out any activity that irritates it, like walking on uneven surfaces!! Do you know how hard that is to do when you live in a city that was rocked by a quake?! So I've come to rely on public transportation quite a bit these days. It's actually really efficient and inexpensive. I take either the bus or colectivo (shared taxi), just depends on which one comes by first. What I really love is that you can hail either one no matter where you are...no bus stop needed. It's basically like NYC, you just hold your arm out, index finger extended and they stop! I like the buses but boy are they crazy drivers. When you get on, make sure you grab the pole by the driver immediately because they don't take your money until they're already on the move again. Bus is only $350 pesos during the week and $370 on Sundays (that's less than $1 US). The colectivo is just a regular sedan style car and you better be ready to scoot over because they always put 3 people in the back and 1 in the passenger seat. They're usually quicker at getting thru the city and only cost $100 pesos more than the bus. And I don't know why I mentioned that just the bus drivers are crazy, pretty much all the drivers here are nuts. Careful walking across the street because people drive fast, don't stay in the lanes and are always zipping around and cutting each other off!
The aftershocks are still happening and the frequency of them varies. My 3rd week we had a lot of them but nothing over the top, crazy strong. There was one earlier this week at about 6am, a pretty strong one, 6.1 I think. Guess who slept through that one?! lol Getting used to them? Maybe. Sleeps like a rock? Most likely.
Social life is going well. The people in my classes tend to be pretty nice and we've since gained 2 more girls in our classes. Sindy and I hang out quite a bit since we're both foreigners and
exchange students. I even cooked us dinner at her place last weekend. I've missed doing that so 
much!! (click on the picture)! Then the next day we took a bus with her friend David to Laguna Grande (Big Lake) in San Pedro. We spent the afternoon walking around and taking pics and relaxing...it was a perfect day! Click the pic! Nicolas and Daniel have been pretty busy lately, but Nicolas and I are trying to get together sometime soon. He's going to introduce me to some of his friends! I'm still pretty timid when it comes to speaking spanish here. They speak so fast and fluid and I know I sound awkward so I tend to stay pretty quiet. Understanding isn't the issue, it's having my brain translate the words I want to speak quick enough. But I have faith, I'll get better ;)I have my first exam in operations management coming up this Thursday. It's a written exam and I've already asked the professor if it's ok for me to write some of my answers in english. I'd hate to know the right response and then put the wrong word and get it wrong. He is really nice and said that it was fine. My other class, management models, is ok. The subject matter is pretty easy but the professor is a bit odd. Nice but odd. It's a lot of reading and our grades are based on 2 in class presentations, 1 exam and 1 group project. My first presentation is at the end of June and has to be about 30 mins!! Not only do I hate speaking in front of people, but my longest presentation has only been about 13 mins. I'll survive but I'm not happy about it ;) I did ask the professor if I was allowed to do mine in english because again, when speaking about business, the last thing I want to do is look like a fool in front of 15 people when trying to talk about something I could easily convey in english...which most of them understand anyways! This professor didn't seem too happy about it, but he agreed. Who knows, 2 months from now I may be ready to present in spanish...I hope!! Speaking of spanish, that is my other class I have as well. I have it on Wednesday mornings and this week will be my 3rd class. The first class consisted of 3 people, myself, another girl from the US (PA), and another girl from Australia. The class actually exists because of me...it's called Spanish for Foreigners in Industrial Engineering (that's the masters program here that I'm taking my classes in). The 2nd class had 3 more people, a girl from France, a woman from Japan and a guy from Germany. I am literally the only real 'student' there in that program! The women, all except the girl from France, are there because they married Chileans and want to learn Spanish. The girl from France and the guy from Germany are exchange students but not in the engineering program. I feel special ;) But the professor is super nice and I'm excited to learn from him!!
I know I sent you all an email about getting hired at the Berlitz School, teaching english. They were supposed to call me last Thursday or Friday to give me log-in info for the website to start my online training but I haven't heard from them yet. I'm not worried, I know I'm hired. Everything here runs much slower than in the states. It's the latin way!
In reference to the latin way, I've been dealing with the Chilean government here for the past couple of weeks. I had to register my visa & passport with the police within the first 30 days of being here. Then they give you this paper and you take that to another government office to apply for your Chilean id card. The police were really nice, the id people, not so much. But I filled out my application and was set to pick it up last Wednesday. Except on Tuesday I got a call from them saying my application had been denied because the copy of my passport wasn't clear for them to read my sex and that the visa expiration date the police had put in the system was wrong. So I had to go back to the police and then back to the id place on Wednesday and redo everything. As long as all is well, I'll have my id on the 3rd!
So I know this has been a super long blog and thanks for reading it all!! The ones from here on out shouldn't be too bad once school gets in full swing! I'll leave you with one last album of photos. These were taken yesterday at Parque Pedro del Rio. It's one of Ximenas' favorite spots that she wanted to share with me. It's where the river meets the sea and wait until you see the photos...breathtaking!!
Christie! I'm so happy to hear from you. I was in Chile between the 9th and the 24th and I met with David for lunch one day. He told me you were in Conce. But I had no idea about the blog. I get CSU e-mails in my hotmail account and don't check very often. Anyhow, it sounds you are doing great. Best of luck with everything.
ReplyDeleteNilda.