Latin American Purgatory

I guess there's an unwritten yet understood rule that any student who studies abroad must document their experiences in a blog. As someone who has composed countless documents for newspapers, AP classes, and courses at the university level, I feel obligated to have an informative yet quirky blog, with witty allusions and out-of-this-world syntax. So unless South America has its own concept of time (actually, they do - show up ten minutes late to everything) where there are more hours added to every day, I won't have a schedule conducive to writing said blog. Instead, I'm just going to describe what I see, what I do, what I experience, and my feelings towards it all.

I've decided to study in Valparaíso, Chile while staying with a host family in Viña del Mar. These twin cities are on the Pacific Coast, with the Chilean metropolis, Santiago, and the Andes Mountains only a couple hours away. Sounds ideal, right? Well, we aren't there yet. Our group of 20 American students has been placed in Olmué, Chile, or what I like to refer to as "Latin American Purgatory."

Olmué was about an hour and a half drive from the Santiago airport. From all that we've seen, it's a tiny town with unpaved roads, stray dogs, and a clear view of what I assume are the Andes (what else would they be?). We have been placed in a German hotel and sit in a classroom overlooking the premises, being told everything we need to know for our next five months in Chile. Aside from the unique food (everyone still complains about the peeled tomato with mayonnaise and tuna salad inside) and being spoken to in Spanish by our directors, it doesn't feel like we're, well...anywhere. With keeping busy during the day and nowhere to go at night, we're confined to our odd little hotel and the activities it offers. The most fun we expected to have was in the heated pool, until we realized we had to buy swim caps - Michael Phelps style - for 2.000 Chilean pesos, or about $4.5 US. Apparently the pool's filters can't handle human hair and swim caps are the only solution. If the filters can't handle hair, how clean is the actual pool?

 This morning, our third day in the depressing town of Olmué, was discouraging. After a lecture with a professor from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, or PUCV, explaining how every Chilean speaks quickly and cuts off segments of words, throws in useless filler such as "hüevón" and "poh," and is impossible to understand, I just about had it with these so called "challenges" we weren't even allowed to experience yet.

However, I keep having to remind myself that Valparaíso and Viña del Mar are only 24 hours away, with my host family, classes, the excitement of two new cities just around the corner. Our IFSA-Butler directors seem very eager to help and I've heard nothing but amazing stories about this program. I'm excited to write some more positive entries.

Until then I'll be in Latin American purgatory. 'Til next time!

(Edit: I wrote this yesterday and things have changed a lot since then. I'll be updating tomorrow.)