So far, I’ve blogged about all of my major adventures here, which I think has led to the misperception that every day in Chile is a trip to the Andes. Contrary to popular belief, I do study here :) So what does my typical week look like?
I have class every day of the week, but usually only one or two a day, they are always over by 12:15. I have history of Chile, Ethics Seminar (a St. Ben’s/St. John’s requirement), Art and Identity of Latin America, and Linguistics. In addition, I will have service learning on Wednesday mornings and either Tuesday or Thursday afternoons. Not a very demanding schedule most of the time, and for the most part, I’m enjoying my classes.
Even though it is at 8am on Friday, art is by far my favorite class, thanks to Jorge Salomo. He is hilarious and not only does he get us free tickets to Teatro Municipal, but he’s very easy to understand (partly due to the fact that he acts out our lessons half the time…makes for an interesting experience when we discuss venusillas, which are amulets that honor motherhood). He combines art with history, culture, and even linguistics (actually, we learn more linguistics in his class than our actual linguistics class…more on that later), so his classes are extremely interesting and help us to understand Latin American identity in more than just art. The class’s favorite lesson so far was when he explained that the large carved heads made by the Olmecs in Mexico and on Easter Island were meant to scare away potential invaders because from a distance, they looked like giants with the body hidden. An interesting idea made even more so by his acting out seeing a giant head and then running away. Never a boring day with Jorge.
My history prof is laid-back and really nice. He’s planning on taking us on several field trips--for instance, tomorrow we’re going to Valparaiso for a few hours on a guided tour. I’m excited because I’ve wandered around Valpo a few times with friends, but feel like I don’t know everything that the city has to offer. The Ethics Seminar is taught by Eleonora, my program director. While the class is in English, its topic is justice and impunity in the different dictatorships in Latin America—so the articles we read are extremely interesting to me. It’s also nice to have a class in English because I feel like I can understand and express complex ideas much more easily…and I’m a nerd, so that’s a must. Finally, linguistics. Not gonna lie, I was excited to take linguistics because language is so interesting to me. However…so far it’s just been a communication class because we’ve discussed models of communication. Don’t get me wrong, I love Comm (it’s my major after all), but it’s like an intro level comm class…not only that, but we’ve drawn the same diagram countless times in our notes…we’re all ready to move on but she’s got a million powerpoint slides about the SAME TOPIC...and we have this class at 8am for almost 3 hours (but only once a week…thank goodness). We’ll see what next Thursday brings, though. At any rate, the professor herself is very interesting...think Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter. She has bright reddish/purple hair, and is VERY passionate about what she’s teaching. She is also very passionate about color coordination. The first day of class she wore all purple. Second class was orange day, and third was leopard print. Her nails always match her outfit. We have to wonder if she does her nails every day, or if she picks one color a week and sticks with it.
The Chile program offers the option of service learning, and almost everyone in the group is taking advantage of that. I’m helping teach at an English Immersion school called Saint Peter’s. Can’t yet say what my schedule there is, because it has literally changed every week; I have not helped the same class twice. They have two weeks of vacation, so hopefully within that timeframe, I’ll finally get a schedule. (Quick anecdote for Mom—the director asked Lori if she was sunburned because her face was pink, but Lori said that her face is always pink…in response, the director said, “Oh, your face is always pink” then she turns to me and says, “And your face is always pale.” Then she walked away.) At the volunteer breakfas
t they had for us the day before vacation, we watched the students perform traditional dances, which was super cute, and I talked to a couple teachers and came up with a tentative schedule. If that all works out, I’ll be helping with 1st and 2nd grade math and field hockey (which I loved in PE, but have no clue about the actual rules). I’m actually pretty excited about this, because not only are the 1st and 2nd graders extremely adorable, but I’ll also get more practice with Spanish (since the school is English immersion, the upper grades only speak English). But the best part of working with them is being showered with hugs, besitos (little kisses), drawings, and being called “Mees Angela.” I have to say, I really miss hugs here. You kiss people on the cheek (even Salomo when he greets us at theater events—super weird), but that’s it.
I have to admit, at first I was really frustrated with my changing schedule at St. Peter’s, and in a larger sense, the lack of schedules here. I’ve discovered that while I love spontaneous adventures, when it comes to things I’m required to do, I like to know when, where, and what I should prepare. Americans in general are really schedule-oriented, but here, people arrive late (which is normal—my history prof says that to make sure someone arrives at the appointed time, you need to say “hora inglesa” (English time)). At first, I thought I’d be working with upper level English classes and was brainstorming activities to do and getting excited about that, and I thought I’d be doing volleyball, which I’ve played before and love recreationally…and then it all changed. The day this all occurred was just an all-around frustrating day for a bunch of people in the group…the newness of Chile had worn off, and we were discovering that there are things here that we’re not so fond of, and missing our American ways of life. So we vented to each other and went out for ice cream…and things have been fine overall since then! We’re learning that planned events are always subject to change, but that things turn out just fine—asi es la vida (such is life). Definitely hoping Chile will help me become a more flexible person.
Mornings are pretty busy between classes and service learning. I walk to and from school, and basically everywhere I can (coming back home is uphill…VERY uphill…I better have some amazing legs after all this). Most afternoons after lunch with my host parents, I end up walking down to the Centro to do homework or hang out with friends at Café Enjoy or Bravissimo, which are close to the beach. After the sun sets, I head home for once, homework, watching movies with my “nephew” in the program, and getting caught up on blogging, Skyping, or e-mailing. Usually a few people will meet up to go to Valparaiso, the beach, or explore some part of Vina on an afternoon. Wednesday nights, a group usually meets up to eat dinner or grab dessert and then hang out at Café Journal, the gringo bar. Fridays and Saturdays are also days to hang out in the afternoon and then go out to a discoteque (dance club). It’s always more fun when the group goes together. This past weekend was a girl from our group’s birthday, and she had the idea that all the girls dress up in crazy leggings. Mine were bright green zebra-striped, and I bought a layered black tank with slashes in it…I looked like a hunted zebra. Inter
estingly enough, Sarah 
got the exact same outfit without planning it…we laughed pretty hard when we saw each other and had a great time being twins. Everyone met up at Hollywood and watched the futbol game and then went out dancing—ended up being a great weekend.
Sundays are lazy days, for Mass and homework. One girl says her family calls them “fomingo” (fome=boring + Domingo=Sunday). I am definitely enjoying the balance between new adventures, relaxing, studying, hanging out, spending time with family, and going out.
The girls that I generally meet up with and I were discussing how we finally, in our first month here, feel like we’ve adjusted to living in Chile. Now that we feel comfortable, we’re beginning to plan weekend trips to Argentina and other cities. I love Vina del Mar, but feel like I’ve seen and experienced most of it, so am ready to explore other parts of Chile and South America!
I have class every day of the week, but usually only one or two a day, they are always over by 12:15. I have history of Chile, Ethics Seminar (a St. Ben’s/St. John’s requirement), Art and Identity of Latin America, and Linguistics. In addition, I will have service learning on Wednesday mornings and either Tuesday or Thursday afternoons. Not a very demanding schedule most of the time, and for the most part, I’m enjoying my classes.
Even though it is at 8am on Friday, art is by far my favorite class, thanks to Jorge Salomo. He is hilarious and not only does he get us free tickets to Teatro Municipal, but he’s very easy to understand (partly due to the fact that he acts out our lessons half the time…makes for an interesting experience when we discuss venusillas, which are amulets that honor motherhood). He combines art with history, culture, and even linguistics (actually, we learn more linguistics in his class than our actual linguistics class…more on that later), so his classes are extremely interesting and help us to understand Latin American identity in more than just art. The class’s favorite lesson so far was when he explained that the large carved heads made by the Olmecs in Mexico and on Easter Island were meant to scare away potential invaders because from a distance, they looked like giants with the body hidden. An interesting idea made even more so by his acting out seeing a giant head and then running away. Never a boring day with Jorge.
My history prof is laid-back and really nice. He’s planning on taking us on several field trips--for instance, tomorrow we’re going to Valparaiso for a few hours on a guided tour. I’m excited because I’ve wandered around Valpo a few times with friends, but feel like I don’t know everything that the city has to offer. The Ethics Seminar is taught by Eleonora, my program director. While the class is in English, its topic is justice and impunity in the different dictatorships in Latin America—so the articles we read are extremely interesting to me. It’s also nice to have a class in English because I feel like I can understand and express complex ideas much more easily…and I’m a nerd, so that’s a must. Finally, linguistics. Not gonna lie, I was excited to take linguistics because language is so interesting to me. However…so far it’s just been a communication class because we’ve discussed models of communication. Don’t get me wrong, I love Comm (it’s my major after all), but it’s like an intro level comm class…not only that, but we’ve drawn the same diagram countless times in our notes…we’re all ready to move on but she’s got a million powerpoint slides about the SAME TOPIC...and we have this class at 8am for almost 3 hours (but only once a week…thank goodness). We’ll see what next Thursday brings, though. At any rate, the professor herself is very interesting...think Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter. She has bright reddish/purple hair, and is VERY passionate about what she’s teaching. She is also very passionate about color coordination. The first day of class she wore all purple. Second class was orange day, and third was leopard print. Her nails always match her outfit. We have to wonder if she does her nails every day, or if she picks one color a week and sticks with it.
The Chile program offers the option of service learning, and almost everyone in the group is taking advantage of that. I’m helping teach at an English Immersion school called Saint Peter’s. Can’t yet say what my schedule there is, because it has literally changed every week; I have not helped the same class twice. They have two weeks of vacation, so hopefully within that timeframe, I’ll finally get a schedule. (Quick anecdote for Mom—the director asked Lori if she was sunburned because her face was pink, but Lori said that her face is always pink…in response, the director said, “Oh, your face is always pink” then she turns to me and says, “And your face is always pale.” Then she walked away.) At the volunteer breakfas
t they had for us the day before vacation, we watched the students perform traditional dances, which was super cute, and I talked to a couple teachers and came up with a tentative schedule. If that all works out, I’ll be helping with 1st and 2nd grade math and field hockey (which I loved in PE, but have no clue about the actual rules). I’m actually pretty excited about this, because not only are the 1st and 2nd graders extremely adorable, but I’ll also get more practice with Spanish (since the school is English immersion, the upper grades only speak English). But the best part of working with them is being showered with hugs, besitos (little kisses), drawings, and being called “Mees Angela.” I have to say, I really miss hugs here. You kiss people on the cheek (even Salomo when he greets us at theater events—super weird), but that’s it.I have to admit, at first I was really frustrated with my changing schedule at St. Peter’s, and in a larger sense, the lack of schedules here. I’ve discovered that while I love spontaneous adventures, when it comes to things I’m required to do, I like to know when, where, and what I should prepare. Americans in general are really schedule-oriented, but here, people arrive late (which is normal—my history prof says that to make sure someone arrives at the appointed time, you need to say “hora inglesa” (English time)). At first, I thought I’d be working with upper level English classes and was brainstorming activities to do and getting excited about that, and I thought I’d be doing volleyball, which I’ve played before and love recreationally…and then it all changed. The day this all occurred was just an all-around frustrating day for a bunch of people in the group…the newness of Chile had worn off, and we were discovering that there are things here that we’re not so fond of, and missing our American ways of life. So we vented to each other and went out for ice cream…and things have been fine overall since then! We’re learning that planned events are always subject to change, but that things turn out just fine—asi es la vida (such is life). Definitely hoping Chile will help me become a more flexible person.
Mornings are pretty busy between classes and service learning. I walk to and from school, and basically everywhere I can (coming back home is uphill…VERY uphill…I better have some amazing legs after all this). Most afternoons after lunch with my host parents, I end up walking down to the Centro to do homework or hang out with friends at Café Enjoy or Bravissimo, which are close to the beach. After the sun sets, I head home for once, homework, watching movies with my “nephew” in the program, and getting caught up on blogging, Skyping, or e-mailing. Usually a few people will meet up to go to Valparaiso, the beach, or explore some part of Vina on an afternoon. Wednesday nights, a group usually meets up to eat dinner or grab dessert and then hang out at Café Journal, the gringo bar. Fridays and Saturdays are also days to hang out in the afternoon and then go out to a discoteque (dance club). It’s always more fun when the group goes together. This past weekend was a girl from our group’s birthday, and she had the idea that all the girls dress up in crazy leggings. Mine were bright green zebra-striped, and I bought a layered black tank with slashes in it…I looked like a hunted zebra. Inter
estingly enough, Sarah 
got the exact same outfit without planning it…we laughed pretty hard when we saw each other and had a great time being twins. Everyone met up at Hollywood and watched the futbol game and then went out dancing—ended up being a great weekend.Sundays are lazy days, for Mass and homework. One girl says her family calls them “fomingo” (fome=boring + Domingo=Sunday). I am definitely enjoying the balance between new adventures, relaxing, studying, hanging out, spending time with family, and going out.
The girls that I generally meet up with and I were discussing how we finally, in our first month here, feel like we’ve adjusted to living in Chile. Now that we feel comfortable, we’re beginning to plan weekend trips to Argentina and other cities. I love Vina del Mar, but feel like I’ve seen and experienced most of it, so am ready to explore other parts of Chile and South America!
Loved your anecdote -- you knew I would. Also loved your reference to Professor Trelaney! Hahah!
ReplyDelete