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!