Chile Part 5
I’m sorry it’s taken so long for me to write a new post, but I haven’t written because these last three weeks have been very busy, full of frustrations and triumphs. Most of my frustrations lie in my classes, which have been very difficult to enroll in because la Universidad de Chile is extremely disorganized. Physically, the university is broken up into 10 facultades, each consisting of a campus in a different part of the city with one concentration of study. Picture 10 islands in the metropolitan sea of Santiago, and you’ll get a nice picture of it. Students at La Chile choose a facultad and only take classes at that facultad for their entire student career. Thus, the facultades are very self-sustaining and not very connected to other facultades or the main university as a whole. However, it does result in a cool community vibe at each facultad, seen through the “Semana Mechona.” During the first two weeks of school, the “Semana Mechona” took place, an annual initiation for the first-year students in which they swam in a pool filled with fish juice and tomatoes, had their clothes ripped apart, and were forced to ask for money on the street, looking like dirty vagrants. It’s hilarious! I felt bad for them at first, but then I realized that they actually enjoy it, because they were being welcomed into their “community.”
Getting my schedule finalized took the better part of a week, as I had to constantly go back and forth between the administrative offices of UC and UChile. Long story short, it all worked out. My classes are all really different! I have a first year class on International Relations, a third year class on International Law of Human Rights, and a fifth year class on Regional and Municipal Government and Administration. It feels weird to not participate as much as I normally do in class, but it’s hard when you’re discussing a technical topic where you may not have as much background as the other Chilean students.
Changing topics, I have been to two professional soccer games here in Chile! They were so fun! The first one was my school, University of Chile, which gave me a taste of a Chilean soccer game. For one thing, every single person had a royal blue La Chile jersey, and I mean EVERY SINGLE PERSON. I had opted to wear my Maccabe Tel-Aviv soccer t-shirt, and thus was very glad that yellow was not one of the other team’s colors, otherwise I would have stuck out in a bad way. During the game, I loved to listen to all the people around me, because I heard more Chilean slang than I knew existed up until that moment. Perhaps the best example, albeit a bit crude, was “Concha de la madre, po weon!!!” Roughly translated, it means “C’mon mother f***er!” I also got to shout Chile’s national chant, “Chi-chi-chi, le-le-le, viva Chile!” La Chile lost, but it was still fun to go.
The other soccer game I went to was Colo Colo, the national professional team of Chile. However, this game was way different than the La Chile one, because Colo Colo’s fans tend to be much more flaite (Chile has stark class differences, seen through the linguistic contrast of cuico and flaite. Cuico signifies snobby, while flaite is very similar to ghetto). Because of this, there were a bunch of people who were trying to get into the game without tickets, which forced the police to close down certain sections of the stadium before some of the people who had tickets (like me!) could get in. So here I am, in front of the closed section with a bunch of angry Chileans shouting and trying to enter the stadium, when I suddenly hear a furious clip-clop, clip clop. 6 or 7 policemen had arrived on the backs of the biggest horses I had ever seen! They galloped forward in order to scatter the crowd and we ran, sprinting to another section in the hope that we might be able to enter there. This craziness repeated itself twice until I finally got in. What an adventure!
Finally, I have a new apartment! It’s funny, because now that I’m finally, finally getting around to writing this blog, it’s actually not very new at all because I’ve been here for 3 weeks. But it’s awesome because I have a Chilean roommate named Denis who is super cool. In addition to knowing good English and having great taste in American music, he has helped me understand Chilean society through watching the news together or just talking about politics. In the apartment, I haven’t been cooking too much (eating lots of Nutella for sustenance), but the last time I cooked was very interesting. I wanted to make some rice, beans and vegetables, but it was more complicated than I thought because I had to soak the beans in water for a day, and then cook them for a long time afterwards. Everything was ready except the beans, so I only cooked them for 15 minutes, then tried them – super chewy! Denis later told me that I needed to cook them for an hour or more, so crazy. Another Chilean custom I’m getting used to is the lack of a dryer. Luckily, we have a patio where we use drying racks for everything, and they’re super fun to use! It takes more time, but you feel more like you took care of your clothing in the process.
I could go on more, but these are some of the highlights. Thanks for reading my blog, I know it’s a lot to read but I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it!
Chau!
P.S. Sadly, I didn't take pictures at the soccer games because I didn't want to advertise that I had an expensive camera. Use your imagination! Also, I'll put up a picture of Denis in the next blog.
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| My Chilean mother Sarah and my sister Claudia! |
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| Sarah and I, right before I left the homestay |
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| Drying my clothes on a rack - so old school! |
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| The view from the apartment balcony. It's my first time living in such a big building! |
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| The view is really pretty at night, with the lights illuminating the city like stars. |
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| Very urban - but I like it! |
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| Having fun with some food preparation - here we have a tomato stuffed with tuna and mayo, garnished with sliced carrots and resting on a bed of guacamole. Just call me Emeril for short. Bam! |
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| My bedroom. It's a bit small, but I don't spend too much time in it, essentially just for sleeping. It's fun at nighttime to keep my shade open and have my room semi-illuminated from the lights outside. Sometimes I open my window to hear the noises, too, but only if I'm waking up early the next morning because the rush hour traffic is pretty loud! |
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| My bathroom, very white but clean. |
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| Ah, the dining room table! Favorite place to do homework or sip tea with Denis and friends. |
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| Our spacious living room. I love how many options there are for sitting and hanging out. On Mondays, I usually have some friends over after class because the Law school is so close - only a five minute walk! |
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| Another living room shot, just to show the space better. |
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| We have a TV and a Wii! Beware friends from the States who usually beat me at Mario Kart, because I am getting better and will soon triumph. |
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Another shot of the view during midday
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| An example of the traffic below the building. |
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| The kitchen! Not super wide, but who's gonna complain when we have a dishwasher?! |
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| Plaza Italia, a huge intersection just steps from my building! It feels cool to be located in the nucleus of the city. |
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| The Río Mapocho, a pretty sad excuse for a river. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the water is actually brown, which leads some to associate it with Willy Wonka's chocolate river. Mmmm. |
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| The Law school where I have most of my classes. It's a very grand and majestic building to walk into every day, makes me feel like a lawyer already! |
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| The plaza where students hang out in between classes. In the background, you can see some people playing ping pong . Loving the game myself, I naturally tried to play one of the regulars and was destroyed! Those guys are ridiculously good! Reminded me of when I played chess in Washington Square Park in New York City and lost in 8 moves. |
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| My building from the distance. It's weird to share a home with hundreds of other people - whenever I get close to the building's door, I always instinctively take out my keys as if to open the door, only to realize that I still have to get up to my apartment. Gotta love the little comforts of home. |
I seriously took a long time to publish this. It's now almost been a month since I first moved in...time flies when you're having a great time in a foreign land!
Chau!
