Classes Begin

  Valparaíso, Chile
Wednesday, August 3, 2005

Hola Todos!

Hard to believe that I have been away for 3 weeks now. Time certainly flies. I hope you have all had a chance to look at my pictures, hopefully very soon I will be adding some new ones.

This last week has been a fairly busy one, although I did have a rather relaxing weekend. At the end of last week I signed up for all my classes and we went to a futbol game friday night, for a battle for last place. The fans here are a riot! They light flares sing songs, dance, beat drums and generally throw lots of stuff. It didnt seem too dangerous, although there werent very many people at this game, perhaps it will be worse versus better teams. The home team won 3-1 and it was very fun to be there. Monday we had our first temblor - or small earthquake. I was pretty upset and it got my heart racing a bit, but the family barely even noticed, but for me it was a bit nerve wrecking.

Tuesday we took a micro bus out to the dunes that are to the north of Valpo and Vina del mar, and it was fantastic. The view was spectacular and we got there right before sunset, watched the sun set...took some pictures and relaxed. Hopefully we will be able to hang out there when it is warmer.

Dunes for sunset

Wednesday was the first day of classes. My first class is an 8:15 meteorology lecture, and i arrived on time but somehow the room had been changed, and somehow all the chileans knew this but of course I didnt. So by the time i finally figured it out, i was 15 minutes late. I felt rather embarrased walking into the classroom really late and the professor looked at me and said ´buenas noches senor¨ Not how you want to start off the first day, but hopefully things will be ok. I am taking an art class which seems like it will be a fun time. The professor seems kind of spacey, but interesting. We will be doing lots of watercolor painting of various places around the area.

Valparaíso at sunset

My family is doing pretty well, our kitchen was just remodeled and so we are finally able to eat our meals in there with out too much dust and construction. My hostmom´s nephew also arrived the other day. He is 19 and from the south of chile, a very interesting guy. He is going to be a ski instuctor in vermont in the winter, so he was very interested in all things about the u.s. and what i thought about the president, war, politics, weather, and if he needed a visa to get into canada as a chilean citizen (with a u.s. visa) perhaps if you know this information you could let me know!!

He also asked me if i could understand my family, and I honestly replied, well sometimes yes, and sometimes no. He said that even he couldnt understand my hostmom very well, so i feel better that i cant understand them sometimes. Im being patient, but I really want to be able to understand clearly, and have good conversations with them. The comprehension is much more difficult than i had anticipated, and sometimes i just want to speak english.

I think this weekend we may be heading to the ski slopes in the andes. and though i have never tried skiing before, why not learn here!! cross your fingers that I dont break anything :-) No really I'll be careful!

Well thats about it, hopefully you arent asleep after reading this. Check my photo website in the next couple days -- i hope to be adding some real nice photos!

Well take care everyone!