Chillin' in Chile: 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!