Happy bday to me!

Hey Everyone,

I have a lot to talk about but the most pressing news is that I am now officially 21!!!!!! I can drink anywhere! haha no, it was great though. I went out saturday night with all my friends and at midnight they sang me happy bday in both english and spanish (because i of course had both chileans and norteamericanos at my get together). Then Sunday my chilean family made a huge lunch complete with a beautiful cake and also gave me these very chilean leggings and a really cute sweater bc apparently they think I didnt pack enough warm clothes and are worried about me when winter comes! I cannot believe I am actually 21. Time passes my friends, its true.

I have officially started school! I am on my second full week of class right now. My classes are:

--Derechos Humanos (Human Rights) with Juan Guzmán, google him right now, he was the guy who prosecuted Pinochet it is ridiculous that he is teaching us, and he is really nice and incredibly smart and of course experienced in the matter at hand. We are also being taught by about 6 other very qualified people as well and I am really excited about this class.

--Poesía chilena (chilean poetry)--the professor is really old and hilarious and basically just LOVES poetry. He reads us poems every day in this really weird sing songy voice and laughs at his own jokes. Half the class is sleeping but I have a feeling he loves talking about poetry so much that as long as one person is awake he doesnt care!

--La formación y el desarrollo de la sociedad latinoamericana (the formation and developement of latinamerican society)--This is my sociology class that I MUST get credit for for my major. I hope it works out. I can perfectly understand the professor and there are about 45 chileans in my class, it's crazy.

--El cine chileno contemporaneo (contemporary chilean cinema)--I really like this class too, the professor would be really hot if he didnt have a unibrow. He talks super fast, and I can hardly understand anything he says. Luckily he uses powerpoints and then we have excerpts of films. It's really interesting but the movie clips we watch are super weird.

I pretty much like all of my classes but chilean school is way different in that you only have 3 tests and maybe like 2 written assignments a semester. You have readings but no one checks them, but I hear you are screwed for the tests if you havent read them. I have NO idea what the tests are like. I have none of my readings yet because you most obtain them at the "fotocopiadoras" which are rooms scattered throughout the huge campus and there is a different one for every subject. I have yet to find any for any of my classes! Instead of buying books (bc they are super expensive) they just fotocopy everything (aka breaking about a million copyrite laws haah).

Oh, I also went on a bike tour of santiago on saturday and it was AMAZING. However, it lasted from 2:30 in the afternoon to 8:30 at night. It was supposed to end at 6 (already pretty long) OMG. bike seats are torture devices. My ass still hurts. As well as my shoulders. We literally rode all around the city. And Santiago is HUGE. But it made me love Santiago so much more. I realized there were all these awesome places right by places I already knew. Santiago is so cool and artsy and pretty!!! Ok now for pictures!

My beautiful not to mention delicious birthday cake!
My chilean friends (more came later for the DANCING part!) the girl is Montse my host sistie!!!!
All my free dranks! Roncola (rum/coke), Frambuesa mojito (raspberry mojito SO good), mango sour (no translation)
TWENTY-ONE TWENTY-ONE!

amigos chilenos!!

Hey everybody, not to brag, but: I AM IN. I have been hanging out with chileans almost everyday. I feel so immersed (in a good way this time, not icky culture shocky). First, when you go out here, it is considered early if you return around 3, even 5 in the morning. People being the night somewhere between 10-12, perhaps go to an outside bar, or someones apartment. Then go out dancing around 2-3ish. From what I gather, most close around 5ish. Then usually you go to an after party somewhere. I guess thats the bigcity nightlife for you!! Also the metro (subway) opens around 7:30, so instead of taking a taxi, lots of peeps just wait for the metro to open. haha

So thursday was the strong aftershock that was a 7. something wtf! I was home alone it was a little scary, but NOTHING compared to the terremoto. What was scary was my mom and sister were at the coast where a tsunami alert was issued. They were okay, but a lot more scared then me. They said it was like armaggedon. Everyone running, screaming, crying. People with their pets in their arms, etc. They had to run to higher ground, imagine a whole city of people trying to go to the same place!

We had a meeting with our embajadores culturales (cultural ambassadors aka chilean students) on Friday. We got divded into groups, mine is Alejandra shes is awesome. There's about 6 ppl in our group, we went to a cute little cafe, and she told us about this benefit concert at San Joaquín (main campus of católica) later that night, and that we should tots meet up. Then I had DELICIOUS sushi yaaay! Ale had told us it started at 6 but would probs go past midnight. We should up around 10 30 (our sushi had taken a long time) there were tons of peeps but we were there for about 2 songs and then it was over!! Very fun bus ride though, all the kids from the concert. It is really fun being a foreigner sometimes. Everyone thinks it is hilarious if you say any swear word, so you can really liven up a crowd quite easily. Went with Ale to her apartment, which has an awesome view, then partied until 5 in the morning at a discotec. Met some new friends!

Next day spent all day at a great leisurely lunch en "el campo" aka 30 minutes outside the city, but technically it still is the city haha, but definiely more trees. With my fam, very fun. That night went to a choripanada at my friends host family's house. She has two host sisters our age. TONS of chileans. It was great. I have lots of people I can call now. yaaaay! My goals are becoming true!

hopefully moving towards normality

Hola queridas,

Bad News:

Because of the terremoto, all the start dates of the universidades got pushed back a week. U de Católica startes tomorrow, when it was supposed to start last week, and U de Chile starts on the 15th when it was supposed to start tomorrow. The bad news is that the end date for the semester of U de Chile is the THIRTIETH of JULY aka ten days after I leave! The actual program end date is the 12th. Thus, unless people change their tickets no one can attend U de Chile. :(

It's a big bummer because the idea was to attend classes at both universities because they are so different, thus giving us a more well rounded idea of what chilean universities are like. Summary of the two universities: U de Chile: public, so all the brightest of the bright students are there, best professors, more liberal, classes get cancelled sometimes bc of protests. U de Católica: private, so more upper class, still smart kids, but they prob couldnt get into U de Chile, better organization than U de Chile. Clearly, if I had to pick one university to attend it would not have been la Católica. It's okay though, at least my house hasn't been destroyed and I have food to eat. Can't feel too sorry for myself when thousands of people are in a much worse situation so close by.

Good News:

Tomorrow I am going to a meeting about getting credit for my major and to talk about classes, which will make me feel better. Even though this coming week is officially the start of classes, no one really has any idea what they are taking yet, plus thurs/fri classes are cancelled to show solidarity with U de Chile because their buildings (which are older) suffered a lot more damage in the earthquake. Both universities have buildings spread throughout the city, the arte building of católica is right near my house, and I plan on taking an art class there, but apparently the whole building is still without electricity, so we shall see when those classes can commence.

News in General:

It is interesting to be a foreigner in Chile right now because there is such a feeling of solidaridad between all Chileans in the country due to the earthquake. Walking downtown you will see micros (the buses) with "FUERZA CHILE" (be strong chile, it has become a slogan for the reconstruction of the country). Many apartment buildings/houses have chilean flags in the windows. A telethon was organized to help raise money and it was called "Chile ayuda Chile" (chile help chile) the goal was to raise 15 billion pesos and that was doubled to 30.1 billion pesos which is the equivalent of 59.2 million dollars!! It is so great, but at the same time, I am definitely an outsider looking in. Watching the news with my mom, I can tell it is that much harder to watch her fellow chileans suffering.

My dad went down to the South to help repair things, the aftershocks down there are much stronger (average 5. somethings) and they happen very frequently. He said they had to start sleeping dressed so they would be ready to escape the house. A very strong one happened and they slept in the cars bc they were too scared to go back inside. The réplicas (aftershocks) are making it so everyone is too scared to do anything because buildings can be even further damaged, indeed, the patio of the friend my dad was staying with fell after a tremor.

The main topics of conversation are still the earthquake, especially when we get together with the neighbors (who i love by the way) Last night, we stayed over talking until midnight, the main topics were the earthquake, everyone's experiences and how much the costs of reparation would be, the discovery of the president's "pololo" (boyfriend), what will happen when Piñera takes over the presidency (11th of march), and funny jokes at the expense of someone (usually the jokester's wife or me hahaha).

Overall, I am finding Chileans to be very very friendly and warm. They laugh a lot and are very caring, sometimes too much so in the case of my mom! She literally shoved a piece of food in my mouth the other day. I am going to get fat here, she thinks im too skinny so is constantly trying to feed me. Today I ate breakfast (cereal) then she comes downstairs, asks me if i have eaten, i say yes, asks me if i want something else, i say no gracias, 10 minutes later, she has made two pieces of pan tostada for me of course! Love her though.

NOW SOME PICTURES!

mi hermanito Vicho!
As you can see, we are perfect for each other!

The living room of my casita!
My cute little bedroom, to the right is a bathroom of my very own.
My house! Those three big windows are part of the neighbor's house, not ours. We are the middle black gate.
Old church that was damaged in the earthquake. I have more earthquake damage pictures, but they arent loading very well...

ciao for now!

EL TERREMOTO

Hello Everyone, yes I am alive and well. As you may have heard on the news everywhere there was an 8.8 earthquake in chile last week! I just got electricity back today. Santiago is 200 miles north of the epicenter (concepción), they say in Santiago it was about an 8.0 earthquake which is still VERY strong. Pretty much the most frightening experience of my life to date. The earthquake happened at 3.34 in the morning, I was, of course, in a discotec (my first time, dont worry i havent been partying everyday!!) and it starts shaking and at first I was like is someone jumping? Then it starts SHAKING and i grab my friend, apparently say to her in spanish that its an earthquake (she is american, what?) and we get shelter by this pillar. We were on the second floor, so everyone else is running towards the stairs, i figured that was the worst thing, i could get trampled etc. The lights flicker and then go out altogether along with the music, all I can hear is people running/screaming and the building shaking. So scary. I was calm for a while but it just kept going (apparently for 3 minutes!!!!!!!!) and i started getting really scared/preparing myself for when the roof collapsed and I died. No joke, that is how much it was moving. It finally stops. We go outside and find our other friends, the city is completely blacked out (only time you will ever see the stars in downtown santiago), there is glass all over from shattered streetlights, there is bits of buildings in the streets, everyone is out in the streets. Luckily our chilean friend lived close by and had a car for the weekend, so we start walking there. I am of course trying to call my host mom but all the phones are trying to work at the same time. I get through and tell her I am okay and trying to get home.

Finally get home around 5 45 in the morning. I tell you, nothing bonds you like an earthquake. There were soo worried about me, love my fam!

First night slept with my sistie, aftershocks all the time (and still happening and will continue to happen for 2 months) and ever since I have been sleeping in my little brother's bed while he sleeps with my parents because my bedroom is downstairs and everyone else's is upstairs. Tonight will be my first night sleeping back downstairs (its not as scary now that we have electricity again).

Today was the first day we started doing orentacion stuff again. All the start dates of the universities have been delayed. It is really stressful with classes and stuff bc we havent enrolled or anything yet. Classes at one university officially start on monday. I will have to do a post about my universities.

Sorry this post is so long. But yes I am alive and well and missing all of you!