One Month Down
Friday, March 25, 2016
{Haven’t blogged in a while, my bad!}
I can’t believe it but I’ve already been here for a little over a
month now. I’ve had something planned almost every weekend & throughout the week I’ve just been getting into my routine and struggling through classes.
If I'm being honest, I probably screw up something every day, whether it’s saying
something completely wrong or just having zero sense of direction when the
school is only a block over. I’ve always been able to laugh at myself, but here
I’ve found it’s even more important. I’m in a completely different culture
and I know that everything’s not going to come easily (even the grocery store
is different here). The first month has been a trial run in a way. At least nothing’s boring! Every day’s just an adventure.
Anyway, here’s my sum-up of month one in 500 word or less:
Salsa:
My first week in Santiago, I went to an hour and a half salsa class held outside for just $1. Things I learned during the class: 1) I can’t do Salsa 2) I shouldn’t do Salsa.
One of the Chileans tried really hard to help me, and I got the hang of it, but then we
would rotate and as soon as I had a different partner, I had two left feet all
over again.
Lollapalooza:
This past weekend, I went to the musical festival Lollapalooza, which was about a half hour from my apartment. The line-up included Eminem, Twenty One Pilots, Mumford and Sons, Jack Ü, Halsey, Walk the Moon, Of Monsters and Men, and so many more.
Viña del Mar:
Last week, we took a day trip to Viña del Mar to go to the beach. The waves were too high to do anything, so we took a local bus to Concón and went sandboarding on the dunes. The sandboard was just a piece of wood with Velcro straps, which was so different from the boards & boots we got in the Atacama Desert. I felt like I couldn’t control the board at all and kept falling (once again, got a video of it.) A huge gash on my leg later, it’s safe to say I won’t be a professional sandboarder any time soon. For only $1 an hour, it was a lot of fun and the view of the Pacific Ocean was amazing.
Cajon del Maipo:
At FEN, Wednesday’s are typically just for the smaller help sections of each class. The first Wednesday of classes are usually cancelled, so instead, everyone goes to this huge party in the mountains called Cajon del Maipo. For about $10, the International Students organization of FEN provided transportation, food and drinks. It’s an all day party, 10am to around 10pm, with everyone that goes to FEN. There was music, a mechanical bull, and an amazing view of the Andes Mountains.
Valparaíso:
Two weeks ago, I went on a day trip to Valparaíso. It's a beautiful city on the water with amazing murals and artwork everywhere. We mostly just walked around, and eventually stopped at a restaurant to try the national “Terremoto” drink. Terremoto translates to "earthquake," since it’ll leave you feeling shaky by the time you finish it... so just imagine how well that went over.
School:
Considering how different my classes are here, I wrote a separate blog post to describe how that’s going so far.
Considering how different my classes are here, I wrote a separate blog post to describe how that’s going so far.
Random thoughts:
They mostly have instant coffee here, and the “iced coffee” is some kind of frothy coffee shake thing. After going through withdrawals, I’m now becoming a regular at a coffee shop near my school that has real Iced Lattes. Also, Chilean time is a real thing, and it’s really confusing. The time they say the party starts is actually an hour and a half before the acceptable time to show up. Lastly, my sarcasm doesn’t translate all that well here, but stay tuned because I’m not giving up.
They mostly have instant coffee here, and the “iced coffee” is some kind of frothy coffee shake thing. After going through withdrawals, I’m now becoming a regular at a coffee shop near my school that has real Iced Lattes. Also, Chilean time is a real thing, and it’s really confusing. The time they say the party starts is actually an hour and a half before the acceptable time to show up. Lastly, my sarcasm doesn’t translate all that well here, but stay tuned because I’m not giving up.
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