Ball, Brine, and Bugs

Thanks to Thesaurus.com for helping me with that catchy, alliteration-filled title. Brine? I did not come up with that on my own...

I apologize for my blogging hiatus, as many things have been happening and changing in my life. However, I'm extremely thankful to be able to keep myself busy in a new country and learn new things every day. It's amazing how much physical distance between people can change entire relationships. Whether it was best friends who never said goodbye before my five month absence or those who aren't the slightest bit interested in what/how I'm doing here, it's been nice to see what true relationships I have back home and know that those people will be in my life forever. This trip has given me a new outlook on how I plan to live my life in the future, and I can't thank everyone who made this possible enough (my parents!, DU, Cherrington, Capital One... haha). Also - here's a little shout-out to the people at Cassidy Orthodontics who I hope follow my blog as much as they followed the Casey Anthony trial all summer. I miss you guys so much!

Over the past two weeks I've been doing things I never imagined I'd be doing. These adventures include:

1). Attending the 193rd Chilean Naval Ball


2). Hiking up/boarding down sand dunes overlooking the Pacific Ocean


3). Getting a taste of the Chilean healthcare system


To start off, I was invited to the Naval Ball by an old friend, Alvaro, who studied abroad for a year in Kansas as a junior. He and his twin brother Pablo, also an exchange student, started their friendship with me by claiming they "needed a picture with a blonde girl from the US to show to all their friends back home" (that should give you a little taste of how much us rubias stand out in this country). Since then, we've kept in touch and I learned that Alvaro is now attending the Navy school in Valparaíso. Alvaro has been extremely helpful since we've been here, telling us how to get around and which places to go at night. But the most exciting thing he's done for us was invite my friends and me to the Naval Ball along with his friends who also didn't have dates. I must say, it felt like we were going to a Chilean prom - we went dress and shoe shopping, got ready together, and took lots of pictures at Kristin's house beforehand. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to borrow an old dress from my host sister, who had also been in the past and was jealous of the amazing food and drinks we'd be served. After a night of sushi, piscolas, dancing to music so loud it makes your chest pound, and the naval after-party with the best kabobs I've ever had, we got home at 7:00 am and were made fun of for leaving too early. These Chileans are crazy, I swear...

This past Monday was a holiday and thus gave us an opportunity to go out Sunday night and turn our 3-day weekends of sleeping-in and watching entire seasons of American sitcoms into a 4-day one. On the fourth day, we were so restless that we decided to check out the sand dunes that everyone who has studied here highly recommends, requiring a long and confusing bus ride through Viña, the expensive beach/surf town of Reñaca, and Con Con. Little did we know that walking up these sand dunes felt like walking up a hill of melting cream cheese, and that any way of getting down required getting sand in your mouth, hair, eyes, pants, socks, shoes, you get the idea... But for the view it offers, it was definitely worth it! These pictures speak for themselves:

Of course, for all the fun I've had partying with marines and sliding down Pacific sand dunes, it must be balanced out by something not so fun- or, at least, I don't consider being covered in allergic and infected bug bites that ooze an odd-colored liquid a walk in the park. Leave it to me to come down with some illness or health issue when moving to a new place (remember when I got mono and swine flu my first week of college?). I began waking up every morning with an increasing number of bug bites, first on my hands, then my arms, and then my face. They started out small, red, hard, and itchy, and turned into large, unbearable, and infected (gross, I know, but bear with me - hearing about it is better than having them). After the largest bug bite had about a four-inch radius and a strange, orange-colored liquid coming out of it - oh yeah, it was on the entire left side of my FACE - it was time to speak up and ask to be taken to a doctor. Somehow my mother's boyfriend got me into an amazing dermatologist who looked them over and gave me five different prescriptions for free. While the process was fairly simple thanks to my family's help, the process of taking care of a $50 bill between two healthcare insurance providers has been anything but easy. Especially because I've either lost my health insurance card or never brought it with me in the first place. NOT my smartest move when traveling to a different country. PLESE don't kill me, mom and dad... or cut me off?

I've decided to start doing a "Things Chileans and Americans Will Never Understand about Each Other" segment in every blog to give my American and Chilean readers alike a better understanding of the other's culture. It's been quite entertaining seeing things here I know would never fly in the US of A and refraining from saying and doing things out of respect in my Chilean household. Here we go, for Part 1:


Americans don't understand:
PATIENCE. We are so spoiled in the way that we get every thing the second we want it in the United States. I never realized how I took my car rides to Walgreens, my central heating, and the warm water in my shower for granted. There have been countless times where I've longed for my Honda Civic when going to a friend's house or dreaded going to the ATM every time I needed cash (especially because it costs me $6.00 US every time I take money out). We live in a "microwave society," as my favorite band teacher Steve Holloman likes to call it, in which we want every whim of ours fulfilled at the drop of a hat. Well, get out of Toe-pee-kee, Kansas, people, cause it's not that easy in other countries! When I want to take a hot shower - okay, I won't lie, they're hot-cold-hot-okay-ohmygod cold-showers - it requires walking outside and turning on the gas and lighting a calefont, or a gas-powered water heater, to do so. Because I've never lit a match and fire scares me, I usually make our nana (maid) turn it on after 5 attempts of throwing the match into the machine and hoping it lights (it never does). And, just so the gas doesn't escape and kill my entire Chilean family, I have to walk outside after my shower in my sopping wet hair and head-to-toe Gamma Phi Beta apparel. Despite this "dreadful life" I live, have you ever taken the time to realize how you got the hot water in your shower or sink? I sure didn't until I began washing my face with ice-cold water every night, cupping the water in my hands and hoping my body heat would transfer to the water and make it a tad less painful. Being here has made me realize just how easy we have it back home.

Chileans don't understand:
The concept of Greek life. While a lot of Americans also don't understand why some people would "pay for their friends" or "live in a house full of 100 girls" - my mom used the latter to try and talk me out of rushing - we still know what they are and what they do. The concept of joining a huge club of the same sex, living together, being represented as a whole with 2-3 Greek letters, and raising money and partying together makes no sense here, or in the rest of the world, for that matter. With no literal translation for "fraternity" or "sorority" in the ways we use them, I have had some of my most difficult times explaining what kind of house I lived in this past year or why half of my clothes have the greek letters Γ,Φ, and Β on them. I've accepted that this is a lost cause and now just refer to it as my "women's club," like a juvenile Junior League. Doesn't sound very fun, does it?

I will try and keep this updated more. Thanks for reading! The next blog will feature Deborah and Peter (also known as my parents), who will be arriving on Tuesday!

La educación ha muerto

The whole point of my five month trip to Valparaíso, Chile was to become more fluent in my Spanish, develop a deep understanding for the culture, and take classes with Chilean students to finish my Spanish major. The reason I chose to apply for the IFSA-Butler Advanced Chilean Universities program was to take classes alongside native speakers and to be fully emerged in the culture as if I were just another one of their peers. The difficult and frustrating part of this experience, to say the least, is that we currently are not allowed to do this. All Chilean students are currently on strike.

I know very little about this nationwide ordeal, especially due to the exchange students being placed in a protective bubble where we cannot see, hear, or do anything about the current uprising amongst the Chilean youth. Most classes have been delayed until further notice while the select few that are offered only to extranjeros, or exchange students, have been moved from Valparaíso to Viña del Mar in order to spare our innocent American lives from the exposure to the tear gas, guanacos, or water cannon trucks, and fires in the streets. For this reason, I highly recommend that anyone who reads my blog (all three people) take a look at my great friend Kristin Van Horn's latest entry about the student protests. She does an excellent job describing the entire situation, explaining why the students are protesting and how greatly it has affected our study abroad experience here thus far. You can check it out by clicking HERE.

Now that I am only speaking Spanish, I must accept the fact that my Spanish is not yet where I want it to be while my English is deteriorating. For that reason, here are some photos of what's going on to make up for my lack of writing skills:

The protests have made it nearly impossible to find the appropriate number of classes that allow me to transfer back credits for my major. At one point, I had to come up with an entirely different schedule to satisfy the big wigs at the DU Spanish department while meeting the requirements of IFSA-Butler. At the end of the day, however, all the trouble going on with the Chilean education system has been a small blessing in disguise. The university, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (PUCV from here on out) and IFSA-Butler have been flexible and understanding with our situation and willing to move us around wherever we need to be. For the next five months, my current class schedule consists of:

1). Advanced Written and Oral Spanish
2). Contemporary Chilean Literature
3). Hispanic-American Narratives, 17th-19th Centuries
4). Contemporary History and Cinema
5). Internship at Teletón

Teletón is a non-profit organization whose mission is to give comprehensive rehabilitation to children up to 20 years of age with disabling diseases, with a strong emphasis on self-care and their integration into society. IFSA chose five students to work closely with this organization in the form of an internship, and it is also worth 3 Spanish credits. According to my host family, it is the most widely-recognized philanthropy in Chile and holds a large telethon (hence, Teletón in Spanish) in which famous Spanish-speaking entertainers visit and perform and the entire Chilean population donates money (apparently Ricky Martin came last year!). All I'm saying is if Shakira made an appearance this year and I was a part of the planning, my life would be complete... But on a more serious note, I'm extremely excited to work with Teletón and use my Spanish while doing something healthcare-related. It's gratifying to know that it can be done and I know it will only push me to pursue my path of Spanish and dentistry even more (and a lot of people told me it was a strange combination).

A week ago, we were given a tour of the city next door, Valparaíso. It's amazing how different Viña del Mar (the city I live in) and Valparaíso (where the university is located) are - Viña is a resort town, with fancy restaurants and clubs and a safer, more family-oriented environment. Valparaíso is like Viña's more lively and exciting older sibling, with winding, random roads up steep hills, countless funiculars as if it were a theme park, and street art adorning every building and sidewalk. Valparaíso is an entirely different environment with its own pros and cons - apparently the people are friendlier and always willing to strike up a conversation (this is according to our maid, Luisa - I just get gawked at like a dog walking on its hind legs), yet the city also feels more raw, less comfortable. Thus far, I only associate it with violent protests and streets lined with garbage. I hope that in the next five months we get to truly experience the city like the locals do - that is, if we can ever find our way around!

Click the following photos to enlarge them:

Funicular

Pablo Neruda's House - the famous Chilean poet

"Under the asphalt, there are flowers that still have not been born"

Boat ride in the Pacific Ocean

I'm already preparing to write the next blog on the things Chileans and Americans will never understand about each other's cultures. It's been fun seeing what is and is not normal here and how far it has all pushed me out of my comfort zone. Thanks for reading, until next time!