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!