Settling in to Valparaíso and Viña del Mar

  Valparaiso, Chile
Thursday, July 28, 2005

Hola!
 
Its now been two weeks in Chile, and a week and a half in Valparaiso. 

Mountains of the Cordillera de la Costa

Pretty much everything is going well, although there are of course the headaches that go with being in a different culture.  Getting around is proving to be expensive on the buses, because we have yet to recieve our student cards to recieve discounts.  Signing up for classes is pretty insane, but I have mostly decided on what I am taking.  It looks like ill be doing a couple of religion classes, a history of chile class, meteorology, drawing, flute lessons, spanish grammar, and a globalizacion class that is a requirement.  I can only hope that kalamazoo will transfer a few of the credits.  My host family is pretty cool, although they are very independent people.  It is not uncommon for them to all be in their own rooms watching television and not really hanging out together, which for me is dissapointing.  When we are all together, they are really hard to understand when talking amongst themselves, as the chilean accent and modismos are rather unusual, and it is said if you can understand spanish here, you will be all set for anywhere else in the world.  Beyond this the university has been helpful with orientation things, and classes start next week.  Going out at night has been fun, we found a place that has live jazz every wed. night and so that will be a favorite of mine.  I went to salsa lessons earlier this week, and I am trying to learn that!  The other kids on the program are great, lots of very similiar people, with enthusiastic visions of the world, although I cant wait to meet and hang out with chileans too.  I feel like I am starting to fit in a lot better.  I am growing a bit of a beard to fit in more with that ¨look¨ that they have here, and have been mistaken for chilean a few times lately.  A lady also asked me for directions this morning, which made me happy! 
 
I am missing everyone back home, but that is to be expected.  I really miss being able to just walk outside or down to the gym and shoot hoops.  I also miss music.  There are no pianos around, and I miss playing sax. 

My room for 5 months!

I hope to be able to rent a flute for lessons at the university, but we´ll see.  For all you other kids studying abroad...best of luck!!  For any of you who are willing to try a long distance phone call... my cell number here is 089094160 ...the country code is 056.  Santiago kids ....call me sometime!! 
 
I hope you are all enjoying summer, its really pretty cold here...and no buildings have heat, so you never warm up except in bed at night, which is different from the winter in the u.s., where we have heat inside buildings.  Living by the ocean is fantastic.  The other day the sunset was one of the best I have ever seen.  A couple of friends and I just got back from a walk along the coast, and while it was a bit foggy, it was a nice walk, and I cant wait until the weather starts to go into spring and we can hit the beaches. 
Well I hope i have not bored you too much with my wordiness.  If you want specifics or want me to email ya...drop me a line...and if i have a minute i will email ya back.  Take care everyone!!