Settling into a schedule

My tourist week is over and I'm finally beginning to get into the swing of things here in my new life. The Thursday after Pucón was my first class. I have Operations Management and it's my only evening class this semester. I only know one other person in my class, Sindy, who is from Guatemala and is here for 2 years to complete the industrial engineering program. She's been really helpful in showing me where our classrooms were, introducing me to other classmates, etc. She even went with me last week to the city center to register my visa with the police and then to go apply for my Chilean id card (I have to go pick that up on the 21st!).

So new classes, new professors, new country and everything taught to you in Spanish...a little daunting at first and I have to say I was a little afraid of the unknown. Not to mention when we walked into class, Sindy and I are the only 2 females in the program! She warned me of this from her other classes where she is the sole female. The class is 3 hours long, as most master courses are, and once it got going, I was fine. We had copies of the slides and of the first couple chapters of the textbook. I was surprised at how easy it was to understand most of the business spanish terms and lecture. Now don't get me wrong, I still have to look up a lot of words, but I bought myself a little notebook that I keep in my purse to write all the new words I've learned so I can study them. The text doesn't seem to be hard to follow and the subject matter is relatively easy to learn and as with most coursework, crosses over into other classes and subjects I've taken thus far. As of this week I've had my 2nd class and still seem to be following along ok. I might just do alright afterall!!

My 2nd class is Managaement Models and this lovely class takes place on Saturday mornings starting at 11am...talk about putting a damper on your weekend! But as with the last class (and all the same classmates) it was easy to follow, the professor was nice and just seems like it's going to be a lot of reading and we have to do a couple of class presentations, those I will have to practice, for sure! After class last Saturday, Ximena and her parents invited me to a BBQ with them at the house...and as you know, I never turn down food!! It was awesome. Her parents cooked for us, although I offered up my help, they politely declined. We popped open a couple bottles of wine and sat on the back patio enjoying the sun and all the amazing food they cooked (which was enough to feed about 10 people, no joke!). We had sausage, chicken, pork, beef, a salad of tomatoes & cilantro, boiled potatoes, bread and a bottle of Cab & a bottle of Merlot. After dinner her mom did a little cleaning in the kitchen and took a nap. Ximena, her father and I continued sitting outside chatting it up about life. He was full of questions about my family, why I chose Chile, how I was taking care of school, and once he found out, making sure to let me know how blessed I am to have opportunities such as these. It was a really great night!

Sunday I got to participate in my first volunteer project with a group called Techo para Chile (a roof for Chile). I met up with Daniel & Sindy that morning and we took a bus over to Coronel. It's a small city about 20 mins outside on Concepción on the water. They are a very poor town and most of their homes resemble that of shacks even before the quake. Now a lot of those homes are destroyed leaving many residents living in tents with winter fast approaching. So Techo began this project on Friday and we helped finish it on Sunday. We helped build a simple wooden home, 1 of 15 that were completed, to provide better protection from the wind and rain. It was a whole new experience for me...a lot of hard work and sweat but in the end and seeing the looks of gratitude on their faces was worth it! We had a great group of people working on our home and we just had fun with it. Our poor house had so many problems, from uneven walls, split boards, nails not in the right places...but we just kept laughing and fixing it as we went a long. It was every bit a 9 hour day of work. They fed us some rice and eggs while we were there and we kept working until the dark no longer allowed it. I was covered in dirt and exhausted but soooo happy I had the opportunity to help. I'm really hoping to do it again soon!

I have a little more to tell but I'm going to let that roll over into my next blog! Time to do some homework and studying. Then I think I'm going to cook some dinner for me and Sindy tonight!!...how I've missed cooking for my friends!