Saturday, July 18, 2009
Fotos
I posted fotos! Check them out at my picassa gallery link to the right! Read the captions it it's kinda like I blogged...
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Ya tengo un piso!
I found a place to live!! Yeah!! It's a rather large flat in an apartment building in the perfect area to live in. It's in the Providencia district, literally across the street from a metro stop with the line that will take me straight to school. After looking for places and knowing that this city is huge, I decided that there are three main things that I have been looking for as far as where to live: location (must be near easy access to the metro or direct bus lines), the people (must be fun, comfortable to talk to, and understanding to my ever-changing spanish), the amount of lighting (some places have small windows and are sort of depressing because the Chileans won't install lots of lights for electricity purposes). The place I found has lots of natural lighting, a perfect place to hang out and it feels safe. It's not on a main street, so not loud, and the Chilean girl I met there are extremely nice. She likes to rent to foreigners, she is very kind and seems like a fun person to hang out with. She's 25 and works in econimic development in poorer parts of the city. The other two, whom I haven;t met, are two guys from Spain. The room I get is painted lime green, as I mentioned before is rather common, and it has a private bathroom attatched to it (yes!!) All amenities included, and lets than $300.
As of late...today was really cold. Huge change from yesterday when it almost hit 70 and today the clouds stuck over the city and it probably didn't go over 53 I'd say and may have been colder than that.
Hmmm...what else. Things I've noticed about Chile/Chileans:
1. Chileans talk like they're running out of breath. That is, they chop the ends of words off and continue to speak really fast without many endings. Most of the spanish world uses the work Pues for "well" but here they say "Po" There you go, they chop it off! and they tend to say Mucha gracia.
2. Chileans like Mayo. A LOT. And there is this food they eat here that they call a vienesa which is basically a hot dog thats stacked tall with avocado, tomatoes, mayo and oregano. And then there is churrasco which is a type of shaved beef with some sort of flavor to it that is pretty good, on a type of burger bun, with the goods: avocado, tomato, oregano, and mayo. They eat lots of bread type things. Or just lots of bread.
3. Fanny packs are the cool thing to have. For girls anyway. I think it's a mix between convenience (it's right there always at hand), safety (close to you, not hanging on the shoulder to be robbed from), and they are kinda fashionable. It's recommended by our advisor to have one cause they are safer as far as keeping things close to you. I might have to get a bright green and yellow one to match my green and blue reebok hightops.
4. In a restaurant, there is no pepper and rarely ketchup. There is salt, mustard, a sauce called ahí---red spicy type stuff, and another red sauce that is more BBQ oriented.
Well, I guess that's all for now...pictures will be up within a week. Chau!
As of late...today was really cold. Huge change from yesterday when it almost hit 70 and today the clouds stuck over the city and it probably didn't go over 53 I'd say and may have been colder than that.
Hmmm...what else. Things I've noticed about Chile/Chileans:
1. Chileans talk like they're running out of breath. That is, they chop the ends of words off and continue to speak really fast without many endings. Most of the spanish world uses the work Pues for "well" but here they say "Po" There you go, they chop it off! and they tend to say Mucha gracia.
2. Chileans like Mayo. A LOT. And there is this food they eat here that they call a vienesa which is basically a hot dog thats stacked tall with avocado, tomatoes, mayo and oregano. And then there is churrasco which is a type of shaved beef with some sort of flavor to it that is pretty good, on a type of burger bun, with the goods: avocado, tomato, oregano, and mayo. They eat lots of bread type things. Or just lots of bread.
3. Fanny packs are the cool thing to have. For girls anyway. I think it's a mix between convenience (it's right there always at hand), safety (close to you, not hanging on the shoulder to be robbed from), and they are kinda fashionable. It's recommended by our advisor to have one cause they are safer as far as keeping things close to you. I might have to get a bright green and yellow one to match my green and blue reebok hightops.
4. In a restaurant, there is no pepper and rarely ketchup. There is salt, mustard, a sauce called ahí---red spicy type stuff, and another red sauce that is more BBQ oriented.
Well, I guess that's all for now...pictures will be up within a week. Chau!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Bienvenidos a Chile
Hola todos...well, I'm in Chile! Yeah! I arrived fine and got to hang out in Mexico City for a few hours with an exchange student friend I met in Germany who is from Mexico. So now I can say I've been to Mexico too! It was nice.
Santiago has been a fun time so far. Since I arrived it's been pretty consistent between meeting up for our orientation and the first day of my language program and finding housing. I've already been able to navigate through the city quite well and comfortably, but have really only seen a couple districts and there is soooooo much more to see. We are staying in a hotel in Providencia, one of the more central districts of the city. It's very hip and trendy and a fun place to wander around and look at. I've checked out a couple places to live and have walked A LOT. I probably did at least five miles yesterday (I mapped one route I did and it was 3.3 miles, and later that day there was much more involved, but too random to map) and a good two or three today. I just decided that if I don't need to be anywhere then there is no point in taking the metro and spending 80 cents when I can walk for 10-30 minutes (or in yesterdays case, over an hour, through a rather run-down portion of town) and see things.
The weather has been beautiful. They said Chile (Santiago) is really really cold. True, it's cold at night, gets to the lower 40s and can go to 30s, but it really warms up in the day...I'd say today it could have hit 68 or so. I was fine with just a tshirt. It is weird how much the temperatures range from night to day, not like that in california in the winter. It's been sunny and quaint.
I've checked out a couple places to live: a family (Grandma, her daughter, and the daughters 6-year old son) who live in a district called Ñuñoa. It's a bit less central and more just a neighborhood with more stray dogs ther than in the city. It's not as nice--i would say it is dangerous but just not as convenient as far as transportion goes. I went to the house with two of the guys in our group who were interested in it as well if I wasn't. I didn't care for it but mostly because of location but I can give you all a good story from this. MOm, you will find this especially interesting. We walked in with the daughter who met us at the metro and somehow got on the topic of what the artwork was in the house, as they had us sit down. She had been collecting books and paraphenialia (i spelled that completely phonetically) of anti-pinochet messages to create a big history type project. Then the grandmother went to get some other notebooks where they had been keeping original papers from the 60s--which they called messages. These messages were all drawn by hand and then reprinted by activist groups that wanted to bring democratic elections to Chile and get rid of Pinochet. Turns out the grandma was very very involved in one of these groups, which had to be kept secret. They would only distribute the little flyers at night on the streets, leaving them out so people could see them in the morning. Ironically, her husband (who we dont know what happened to) would go around after her and pick them up because he supported Pinochet. It was super interesting and the grandma just reminded me of some really tough lady that wouldn't take anything from anyone.
OKee dokee, I'm gonna write more later, hasta luego!!!
Santiago has been a fun time so far. Since I arrived it's been pretty consistent between meeting up for our orientation and the first day of my language program and finding housing. I've already been able to navigate through the city quite well and comfortably, but have really only seen a couple districts and there is soooooo much more to see. We are staying in a hotel in Providencia, one of the more central districts of the city. It's very hip and trendy and a fun place to wander around and look at. I've checked out a couple places to live and have walked A LOT. I probably did at least five miles yesterday (I mapped one route I did and it was 3.3 miles, and later that day there was much more involved, but too random to map) and a good two or three today. I just decided that if I don't need to be anywhere then there is no point in taking the metro and spending 80 cents when I can walk for 10-30 minutes (or in yesterdays case, over an hour, through a rather run-down portion of town) and see things.
The weather has been beautiful. They said Chile (Santiago) is really really cold. True, it's cold at night, gets to the lower 40s and can go to 30s, but it really warms up in the day...I'd say today it could have hit 68 or so. I was fine with just a tshirt. It is weird how much the temperatures range from night to day, not like that in california in the winter. It's been sunny and quaint.
I've checked out a couple places to live: a family (Grandma, her daughter, and the daughters 6-year old son) who live in a district called Ñuñoa. It's a bit less central and more just a neighborhood with more stray dogs ther than in the city. It's not as nice--i would say it is dangerous but just not as convenient as far as transportion goes. I went to the house with two of the guys in our group who were interested in it as well if I wasn't. I didn't care for it but mostly because of location but I can give you all a good story from this. MOm, you will find this especially interesting. We walked in with the daughter who met us at the metro and somehow got on the topic of what the artwork was in the house, as they had us sit down. She had been collecting books and paraphenialia (i spelled that completely phonetically) of anti-pinochet messages to create a big history type project. Then the grandmother went to get some other notebooks where they had been keeping original papers from the 60s--which they called messages. These messages were all drawn by hand and then reprinted by activist groups that wanted to bring democratic elections to Chile and get rid of Pinochet. Turns out the grandma was very very involved in one of these groups, which had to be kept secret. They would only distribute the little flyers at night on the streets, leaving them out so people could see them in the morning. Ironically, her husband (who we dont know what happened to) would go around after her and pick them up because he supported Pinochet. It was super interesting and the grandma just reminded me of some really tough lady that wouldn't take anything from anyone.
OKee dokee, I'm gonna write more later, hasta luego!!!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
chile
I'm going to Chile, leaving in mid-july to study in Santiago at the ponitificia universidad católica de chile. im also currently applying for a rotary ambassadorial scholarship to study in South Africa from March-December 2010. Wish me luck! :)
Monday, November 24, 2008
update
I am applying to study abroad through SFSU to Santiago, Chile for the 2009/2010 academic year.
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