Off to the South...School starts on the 5th of March!

Last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting Valparaíso which is Chile's main port city.  I went with a couple of my friends from the program and met up with others in the group at a hostal in Valpo.  The first thing we did was sample Chorrillana which is the dish Valparaíso is known for.  It is french fries, meat, onion, and egg basically but it is incredibly delicious, probably not the best for you though.  I also had the opportunity to walk around the city and ride the acensores, which are the old early 20th century lifts that take you up the hills of the city because they are so steep.  Some people refer to the city as the San Francisco of South America.  I returned to Santiago Sunday night after struggling to find a bus because vacation time is over for the Chileans and they are all headed back from the beach to Santiago to get back to work and to school.  This week we finished up our introductory seminar class (except for the essay I have to write) and visited the Historical Museum in the Plaza de Armas which has basically every artifact from the history of Chile including Salvador Allende Gossens glasses that were broken during the coup in 1973.  I had the pleasure of encountering the Chilean bureaucracy this morning when I went to the Registro Civil to apply for my cédula de identificación (basically the Chilean green card) for my time in the country.  I arrived at nine and left after noon, so it was quite an occasion.  I am now preparing for my trip south to Valdivia with some of the group as it is our last weekend before school starts.  Classes begin at la Católica March 5 and la Chile March 10.  I still don't have a set schedule but will later this week so I will be sure to let you know all my classes when they are available, and pictures from my latest journey.  Also, I am only posting some pictures on the blog (they only allow five per post) and the rest are in my Picasa album http://picasaweb.google.com/jbp12005/Chile

Bienvenidos de Chile!!!

I write to you from my comfortable bed in my new home in Chile.  I live in the community of Las Condes, which is generally considered to be one of the wealthy neighborhoods in Santiago.  I live with my Chilean mother, father, and sister (who is 24).  The father owns a restaurant, the mother is dueña de casa, the person that takes care of the house and sister works for a large retail store in Chile.  They are quite welcoming.  I spent the first weekend with them in Viña del Mar, which is one of hte most beautiful beach cities I have ever seen with some of the greatest sunsets imaginable.  I have had the opportunity to see lots of awesome things already.  This week we started the program's beginning seminar class called Contemporary Chile.  We basically cover a different subject each day and visit a place or watch a film connected with the subject.  We have been to La Moneda (the Presidential Palace), La Chascona (Pablo Neruda's Santiago home) and la Plaza de la Constitución where you can still see some damage on buildings from the coup in 1973.  I am getting more and more accustomed to Chilean life.  One of the more challenging aspects is learning Chilean spanish which is one of the more challenging forms of Spanish around.  I am learning the Chilean slang (po - which you say at the end of phrases when addressing a friend or family member, cachai? - do you understand?).  Those are a couple of the most common ones.  I am also getting used to the metro, which I take back and forth to class everyday.  It is the most densely packed metro in the world besides Tokyo, I believe it reaches something close to 9 people per square meter during busy hours.  It can be crowded but is incredibly convenient.  My host mother cooks a lot which basically means every meal is a challenge, although quite tasty.  I guess the poor description of Chilean food depends a lot of who you are with because I have only found it to be incredibly tasty.  Tomorrow is a busy day so I am going to cut this message short, I might be going to Valparaíso this weekend, which is Chile's main port so I will have much more to report when I get settled and learn more about the city.  

I have arrived in Chile!!!

Well after much anticipation I have finally arrived in Chile.  My travels began when I woke up at 4am on February 11th to fly from San Francisco to Miami.  After my 5 hour layover in Miami I began my flight to Chile.  Midway through the flight they alerted us that one of the passengers was having a health emergency and we had to make an unplanned stop in Ecuador so the woman could receive medical attention.  Anyhow, we finally arrived in Santiago at about 9am Chilean time which is five hours different from the Pacific time zone.  So I am actually writing this message at about 1:30am, partially because I took a long nap during the middle of the day just to recover from all the traveling.  After I awoke I cruised around Providencia, the part of Santiago I am staying in before I move into my homestay.  I had a delicious meal with fresh juice.  Fruit here is nothing short of amazing.  I walked by a store and smelled the peaches like two stores down.  I think tomorrow I am going on a fruit quest.  It is in some ways surprising the different types of things that have made it from the US to Chile.  McDonalds and Dunkin' Donuts to name a couple.  I hope to see more of the city and meet up with some of the other students on my program when they start coming in tomorrow.  The Spanish here is definitely going to take some getting used to.  Chileans make a habit out of dropping letters off of words and throwing in Chilenismos as they are called as often as possible, so it will definitely take some adjustment, not quite like the Spanish I am used to at home.  Well I guess I will stop at that for now.  It is getting late and I am sure I will have more exciting things to say when I get some sleep!  

Hasta pronto!

Headed to Chile!!!

February 10th, 2008 at 7am I will be headed to Chile for my study abroad semester.  I will make a quick stop in Miami and then off to South America I go.  I will be back on August 8th, 2008 just in time for my mother's birthday.  I can be reached at either of my emails jbp12005@gmail.com or jbp12005@pomona.edu.  Thanks to you all for your support and I hope to hear from you all soon!