Before I continue, I want to warn the readers that my abilities in English are deteriorating by the day, so please excuse horrible spelling; poor use of grammar; and, as this continues, a complete lapse into Spanish (and not only Spanish, but the Chilean version. I will try to keep you up to date on the slang). Buy your dictionaries now while they are cheap. And by all means e-mail or send messages in English or German so that I am not completely screwed when I leave Chile.
So, the first few weeks here have been great. I haven't been able to upload my photos yet, but rest assured, you might see them at some point in the very distant future. Maybe.
We spent the first few days in Santiago, Chile before moving on to Valparaíso. Most of the 33 students (10 of which are from LC) in the program live in neighboring Viña del Mar, but I live in Valparaíso (Valpo). It is absolutely lovely here. The hills (cerros) rise up from the water and everyone has a view of the sea. For instance, we watched the Esmeralda leaving port from our house yesterday afternoon. Quite lovely. We take micros (little buses) to get to Viña and to our classes. During the evening, going from one city to the next, you can see all the hills of Viña and Valpo surrounding the slight bay of the ocean and the boats and houses are lit up and it's just beautiful. I kind of really love it here.
The beaches are mainly in Viña and, more towards the north, Reñaca (very touristy), and Viña is quite remeniscent of Santa Cruz near the boardwalk at times. Very busy, touristy, with a huge mall nearby. The hills, however, are much quieter and purely residential, not counting the tiny stores run out of the front room of people's homes and the small produce mercados.
The most striking aspect of the cerros here is the abundance of stray dogs. They are all over the place, pretty much as common as squirrels in the US...except about 20 times as large and much louder. I'm still getting used to seeing them all over the place.
On a different subject, the people (for the most part) here are great. Within our CIEE program, I'm close friends with three other students, Martha and Carrie (both from Oberlin), and Stephanie (from University of Minnosota). My host family includes Adela, my host mom, Hernán, my host dad, and Carlos, my host brother. Adela and Hernán are 72 and 80, respectively, and Carlos is 33. It's definitely a different setting than I'm used to (ie young parents and a younger sibling), but they're all really great, welcoming, and fun to talk to. Carlos' sister, Jenny, and 3 closest friends are over often and are also very interesting and friendly.
Hmm, as for Chilean aquaintances, I just started classes last week and do not know many of the students very well (at all), but we ('we' being an abreviation for 'we four gringas') have gone out dancing (yay salsa!) hung out/carreteado a few times with Juan Pablo, Ramón, Bob the Builder (nickname, not given), Estephania, and Marian (technically german, but has been here for over a semester), who are los amigos del pololo (Héctor) de la 'hermana' de Stephanie (friends of Héctor, the boyfriend of stephanie's host sister). So, we are branching out. Sort of.
I have to go to class now, but I will continue updates later.
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