Hey everyone. I am writing again and I am sorry if I have been slacking, but once I don't do something that I have gotten into a routine it is easy to forget about it. But I will have to get back into a routine of talking about Santiago!!
Last night I went to After Office. It is a place where the people go after working in the office. So if you want to go somewhere were you are going to have to dress up, After Office is the place to go. Sadly eventhough it was the Birthday of the place, we still had to pay to get in, but we received a free drink so it was the same as getting in free and paying for a drink. :) but it is a place where we can dance all night and have a blast. It is only open until 1:30 so it is nice, cause most of the time I don't like to stay out late, so its perfect especially when I go with people that live by me too cause then it is easy to get home.
So that is where the taxis come in! When we go out at night, sometimes we take the metro to the club, but it closes at 11 so we have to usually take taxis home if it is a ways from where we live. But one needs to be careful when they take taxis here!! If someone speaks with an different accent than Chilean it is easy to see that the person is not a Chilean native. Here is where the drivers get a little sketchy.
I had a problem one night leaving a friends house and I just think that I said the directions wrong or he couldn't understand me, but after about 4 maybe 5 blocks at the most my taxi meter was already up to $7.000!! that is like $14 USD. It was outrageous, but I was by myself and it was late at night, so I just stayed in the taxi and finally got out...threw the money at him, cause didn't know what would happen if I didn't pay him and started walking down a street by myself. At least I knew what street I was on...but I hailed another cab and was scared to get in and say directions, b/c I didn't want a repeat. But got in told him, and when he would do the slightest thing that I thought was out of the norm...having his blinker on like turning down a street I KNEW that we didn't need to go I freaked out. But he was a good driver. I told him what happened and he was disgusted. I got home safe, was a little shook up and just relieved that nothing happened to me.
But I strongly suggest not taking a taxi by oneself. Its just so easy to be distinguished as a foreigner here, that people try to take advantage of you. So usually I like to go with at least one other person which is pretty good, but what scares me the most is they can still jack the meter, because one guy did it by the touch of a hidden button, and they will do it if they hear English. Another night with 3 other girls in the cab, the meter just climbed and was double than what it should be, but again we were all speaking English. So when I get in a cab I prefer to not talk, or speak Spanish. I try to not feel so out of place like normally which I admit is quite hard.
So either negotiate the price before hand or clearly state your directions before getting in the cab. But during night never take one by yourself, especially being a female. Chile is quite safe for the most part, but then again it is a city of about 6 million people so it wouldn't be strange if something happened to a person one time.
But here as you listen to me it sounds like I am disgusted with Chile and saying all the negative things about it, and by thinking all these things is what gets me worked up all the time. I need to trust myself with my level of spanish and if I only think about the bad things I am never going to have fun. It is just like any other bigger city that I have been too, there is an amount of crime everywhere, but if I just dwell on that nothing is going to be accomplished.
So with this I just need to have a more open mind, travel smart and trust my instincts.
Ciau de Chile
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Ice Cream!
Oh my goodness...let me tell you that I love ice cream! I think it doesn't help that I have a boyfriend who loves it too...and it kind of rubs off on me. But he isn't here with me and yet everyday last week I ate ice cream....even when I didn't have it I went and bought it...wowowow. But the thing is there is a place here called Bravissimo and holy man it is full of ice cream...I mean I am sure that there are other places but I have only tried this one out.
So this is a little weakness for me when I open the freezer and see Lucuma flavored ice cream. Now Lucuma is a fruit that looks like an avocado and oh my goodness is it tasty. So as you can see I have a little bit of an addiction to ice cream lately and holy crap it is hard to go cold turkey on it, I mean who can turn down a side of french fries with ice cream!?
But with that...the last few weeks have not been too exciting beyond regular duties of classwork and chillaxing. Actually tonight I watched a movie with my roommates, I love you, Man, and oh my some slang words like chillaxin and ridonculous came up...and it was funny to hear that my roommates asked me what they meant. Some slang words just don't make sense to others. :) I have a few projects that I am doing for my classes including biographias about 2 arquitects/historical people and reading for literature.
I hope that soon I will get back to a theme blog...but when I put it off it seems more easier to forget it so I will make it my goal this week to write another blog before the weekend, and NO Ice Cream this week...just finished mine in the freezer! Workout time tomorrow
Ciau
So this is a little weakness for me when I open the freezer and see Lucuma flavored ice cream. Now Lucuma is a fruit that looks like an avocado and oh my goodness is it tasty. So as you can see I have a little bit of an addiction to ice cream lately and holy crap it is hard to go cold turkey on it, I mean who can turn down a side of french fries with ice cream!?
But with that...the last few weeks have not been too exciting beyond regular duties of classwork and chillaxing. Actually tonight I watched a movie with my roommates, I love you, Man, and oh my some slang words like chillaxin and ridonculous came up...and it was funny to hear that my roommates asked me what they meant. Some slang words just don't make sense to others. :) I have a few projects that I am doing for my classes including biographias about 2 arquitects/historical people and reading for literature.
I hope that soon I will get back to a theme blog...but when I put it off it seems more easier to forget it so I will make it my goal this week to write another blog before the weekend, and NO Ice Cream this week...just finished mine in the freezer! Workout time tomorrow
Ciau
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Oops
Well it seems that I am getting worse at this...ahh don't stop now. I just keep forgetting and putting it off and that is why I can't really keep up with these things but we will make it work.
This week was ok...classes went better this week, except for my literature class. I had a hard time understanding the teacher but other than that ok...I do have quite a lot of free time, so these next few months I am going to need to find stuff to fill my time. But we had a few dinners this week for friends and had a little house warming fiesta...so there have been a few things to do this week.
I have recently gotten a little annoyed when people in my house....tell me oh what you are doing is costing us too much money. I am sorry but I reserved this place with all the stuff included for a set price, and if I have to wash my dishes in cold water and leave them not clean no thank you. It is getting a little annoying. Oh hey don't do that cause it is expensive, or that beacuse it costs us too much money. Well fine then I won't do a damn thing more...You can wash all my dishes and do everything else for me since I can't do it right.
Fed up with that...gee way to make my trip fun...now is the time when I am ready to be done with it and just go back to what I am used to. Starting now.
This week was ok...classes went better this week, except for my literature class. I had a hard time understanding the teacher but other than that ok...I do have quite a lot of free time, so these next few months I am going to need to find stuff to fill my time. But we had a few dinners this week for friends and had a little house warming fiesta...so there have been a few things to do this week.
I have recently gotten a little annoyed when people in my house....tell me oh what you are doing is costing us too much money. I am sorry but I reserved this place with all the stuff included for a set price, and if I have to wash my dishes in cold water and leave them not clean no thank you. It is getting a little annoying. Oh hey don't do that cause it is expensive, or that beacuse it costs us too much money. Well fine then I won't do a damn thing more...You can wash all my dishes and do everything else for me since I can't do it right.
Fed up with that...gee way to make my trip fun...now is the time when I am ready to be done with it and just go back to what I am used to. Starting now.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Religion
Well yesterday and today I went to the Templo de Maipu. This weekend was filled with religious festivals of dancing and worshipping. My friend and I have an assignment for our class where we had to interview people that are involved in these festivals. That was the easy part and was nice to learn a little about the other parts of Chile.
Yesterday I went to Isla Negra as a trip with our university and our first stop was the Templo de Maipu. We watch some of the ceremonial dances and then walked around in the museum that is on the side of the Templo. We just saw a lot of artifacts from the 19th Century and toured it for a little bit.
That was about the whole experience at the Templo de Maipu...ironically I saw a group of dancers that had headdresses and Native American symbols and on the back of their shirts said Dakota. So that was cool seeing that the religion and teachings of the Dakota people in our area back home are spread literally across the world. But unfortunately my camera died and I was not able to take a picture.
But with all this adventuring through the metro to the Templo and the Isla I am worn out and have to go make some videos before I crash. So this week is like actual classes begin...second week...so it should be a little more busy here soon. Until then...
Chau
Yesterday I went to Isla Negra as a trip with our university and our first stop was the Templo de Maipu. We watch some of the ceremonial dances and then walked around in the museum that is on the side of the Templo. We just saw a lot of artifacts from the 19th Century and toured it for a little bit.
That was about the whole experience at the Templo de Maipu...ironically I saw a group of dancers that had headdresses and Native American symbols and on the back of their shirts said Dakota. So that was cool seeing that the religion and teachings of the Dakota people in our area back home are spread literally across the world. But unfortunately my camera died and I was not able to take a picture.
But with all this adventuring through the metro to the Templo and the Isla I am worn out and have to go make some videos before I crash. So this week is like actual classes begin...second week...so it should be a little more busy here soon. Until then...
Chau
Saturday, March 12, 2011
First day of School
Well a little late...but will get into that later :)
First day of class. Wow I felt like I was in high school again and starting off at a new school without knowing anybody, but at least in a high school were everyone spoke English. It is a little difficult to walk up to a group of people and start a conversation in a language that you are still learning.
Getting to where my first class was a doozy. I was sent a mail that told me a list of classes at one site, but when I went there they told me it was at a different site. So then I get there trying to find what room my class is and with 30 minutes to kill before it starts. Yay. So as I sit there on the bench alone, I definitely remember the first days at new schools when I was younger.
The halls are filled with students at the school of architecture. But normally like first days it is all freshman and what appears to me that I am the only intercambio, especially the only one from the states and my native language as English. Boy do I have my first day cut out for me.
I am still out of the circle on when one of my classes is. It is at a nother site, but I don't know what day and what time. So however long this class takes I get to go there after and figure this out. But why me? Why can't the professor do it like he said, the director, or any other person? It is just a little annoying when I got to do these things all the time.
Well better get ready to see how this first class goes. While in a different language and I am sure I am going to hate the first day. How am I going to get at least a 5.0 (C ish) in this course if I can't understand the teacher? How am I going to pass and not have to take my exams, so I can do what I want and then go home earlier than planned but with finishing what iI can afford to do here? Lets go and try not to appear as American/White/Foreign as everyone else sees me.
Here goes Nothing.
This is what I wrote in my notebook while I waited for my class the other day. Wednesday was my first day of classes. My first class the teacher was 1 hour late, as me and some girls, whom I was conversing with, left the teacher showed up. Then I did finally find out when my other class was, but it happened to end the same time as my other class was supposed to start 20-25 minutes away. So had to go change everything yesterday but finally have things figured out.
Schedule is very nice! Classes only Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. 3 on Wed...two 20 minutes apart and 20 min travelling apart, but here in Chile nothing starts on time...NOTHING, and Th. and Fr. I have the same 1 class, 1.5 hours thurs. and 3 hours, starting at 8 am, on friday. But I don't care about the length, because in this class, we dance and sing!! How awesome!
But Friday that 8 am class was rough. See I had went to the Shakira concert the night before and my body was tired from going out Wednesday night, After Office--club open until 1:30 and just dancing..awesome--, and then Thursday night. But I slept almost the whole day on Friday after I finalized everything for the semester kind of and today went on a field trip.
So tomorrow I will talk about what we did today and I will be going back to the Templo de Maipu, so will write about that. But so that is the last few days...and my first day of class...now got to see how it will go for the two classes I didn't go to on wednesday cause they were back to back...but its nice class is once a week!!!
Chau de Chile
First day of class. Wow I felt like I was in high school again and starting off at a new school without knowing anybody, but at least in a high school were everyone spoke English. It is a little difficult to walk up to a group of people and start a conversation in a language that you are still learning.
Getting to where my first class was a doozy. I was sent a mail that told me a list of classes at one site, but when I went there they told me it was at a different site. So then I get there trying to find what room my class is and with 30 minutes to kill before it starts. Yay. So as I sit there on the bench alone, I definitely remember the first days at new schools when I was younger.
The halls are filled with students at the school of architecture. But normally like first days it is all freshman and what appears to me that I am the only intercambio, especially the only one from the states and my native language as English. Boy do I have my first day cut out for me.
I am still out of the circle on when one of my classes is. It is at a nother site, but I don't know what day and what time. So however long this class takes I get to go there after and figure this out. But why me? Why can't the professor do it like he said, the director, or any other person? It is just a little annoying when I got to do these things all the time.
Well better get ready to see how this first class goes. While in a different language and I am sure I am going to hate the first day. How am I going to get at least a 5.0 (C ish) in this course if I can't understand the teacher? How am I going to pass and not have to take my exams, so I can do what I want and then go home earlier than planned but with finishing what iI can afford to do here? Lets go and try not to appear as American/White/Foreign as everyone else sees me.
Here goes Nothing.
This is what I wrote in my notebook while I waited for my class the other day. Wednesday was my first day of classes. My first class the teacher was 1 hour late, as me and some girls, whom I was conversing with, left the teacher showed up. Then I did finally find out when my other class was, but it happened to end the same time as my other class was supposed to start 20-25 minutes away. So had to go change everything yesterday but finally have things figured out.
Schedule is very nice! Classes only Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. 3 on Wed...two 20 minutes apart and 20 min travelling apart, but here in Chile nothing starts on time...NOTHING, and Th. and Fr. I have the same 1 class, 1.5 hours thurs. and 3 hours, starting at 8 am, on friday. But I don't care about the length, because in this class, we dance and sing!! How awesome!
But Friday that 8 am class was rough. See I had went to the Shakira concert the night before and my body was tired from going out Wednesday night, After Office--club open until 1:30 and just dancing..awesome--, and then Thursday night. But I slept almost the whole day on Friday after I finalized everything for the semester kind of and today went on a field trip.
So tomorrow I will talk about what we did today and I will be going back to the Templo de Maipu, so will write about that. But so that is the last few days...and my first day of class...now got to see how it will go for the two classes I didn't go to on wednesday cause they were back to back...but its nice class is once a week!!!
Chau de Chile
Monday, March 7, 2011
Let it Begin
Well classes are about to start here in Santiago for me. Many people have already been at class but mine doesn't start until Wednesday. I had a meeting with my profesor when I returned last Friday. We talked about my classes that i will be taking and what site they are at. Actually as of now I have my 4 classes at 4 different sites, so that pretty much means that I will be getting to see a lot of Santiago on the way to classes.
La Serena was beautiful and it was just nice to relax and spend time away from the city. Also the tan I got is not that bad either. :) Now that I am back in Santiago it is time to get myself ready for the school year and start saving my money rather than spending it on who knows what. But I have done pretty good I think so just got to keep going on that. But unlike other countries in South America, Chile is not the cheapest country. So as the USD continues to go down the costs here are a little more than would like. But its hard because I am not working and so I don't have a monthly income, but I think that all will be fine.
It is now Spring Break at home, which means that Baseball season is starting. Sadly in Chile baseball is not as popular as 'futbol', soccer, and so I will be missing my man's whole season and most of the twins...how depressing. Reading the stats/outcomes is not as good as watching it in person. But that is what I am going to do as soon as I get home.
So all in all not much going on until the later part of the week. Hope the weather is looking up for you all and that these continue to interest you. Let me know if there are any questions about Santiago or if someone wants to see something I can post pictures as well.
Ciao
La Serena was beautiful and it was just nice to relax and spend time away from the city. Also the tan I got is not that bad either. :) Now that I am back in Santiago it is time to get myself ready for the school year and start saving my money rather than spending it on who knows what. But I have done pretty good I think so just got to keep going on that. But unlike other countries in South America, Chile is not the cheapest country. So as the USD continues to go down the costs here are a little more than would like. But its hard because I am not working and so I don't have a monthly income, but I think that all will be fine.
It is now Spring Break at home, which means that Baseball season is starting. Sadly in Chile baseball is not as popular as 'futbol', soccer, and so I will be missing my man's whole season and most of the twins...how depressing. Reading the stats/outcomes is not as good as watching it in person. But that is what I am going to do as soon as I get home.
So all in all not much going on until the later part of the week. Hope the weather is looking up for you all and that these continue to interest you. Let me know if there are any questions about Santiago or if someone wants to see something I can post pictures as well.
Ciao
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