Whew…this past week has been crazy. We had tours of Viña and Valpo, the PUCV buildings, etc. pretty much every day. I could write a book about it all basically. There were a few highlights…we took a boat tour of the cities, vistited Pablo Neruda’s house called La Sebastiana (incredible view of the city), and went to the beaches.
Valparaíso
Last week we also picked out our classes for the semester. The way it works here is that international students have to sign up for a whole bunch of classes and then drop the ones they don’t like. Normal PUCV students have their course schedules dictated by their carreras, or majors, from what I understand, so they can’t pick their own classes. At any rate, foreign students have a month to drop whatever classes they don’t like before turning in their final schedule at the end of March…so we have a lot of flexibility.
Because we have so much flexibility, I’m currently registered in ten classes. Yep…ten. A few of them overlap, so I won’t be able to go to all of them this week. I just wanted to have backup in case I end up hating one of the classes I take. Today I had two Geography classes, Geog. of Population and Geog. of Latin America, plus a Spanish grammar class. I think I’m going to like the Latin America and Spanish classes, but the Population one was pretty bad. All we did was go over the syllabi, but I could tell right away that the professor was not going to be great…he’s an older man that is difficult to understand and follow. Plus the class material looks like material from another class I took at UMW last semester. In general though, I think I will be alright in my classes. The professors seem to be very helpful.
View from La Sebastiana, Pablo Neruda's home in Valparaiso.
I think I’m getting pretty well adjusted to life here so far. My Chilean family is still awesome, I like the area and feel pretty safe here (not safe enough to walk the streets alone at night, of course), and I’m making some friends. Most of my friends here so far are Americans, however, which I would like to change. Of course I don’t mind spending time with them, but I’d really like to be more immersed in the culture, etc. My host brothers are all very busy and have lives of their own, so I haven’t spent much time with them. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to meet more people once school really gets rolling though.
I’ve observed some interesting things about Chileans since arriving here. For one thing, they are a lot more affectionate than Americans. You always greet someone with a kiss on the cheek, which still sort of makes me mildly uncomfortable for some reason. Couples are constantly making out openly in the streets, cuddling, etc. Another thing I’ve noticed is that Chileans, especially women, LOVE to talk. I’m pretty certain my host mom could talk for hours on end without stopping if she could, which is good because it helps me with my Spanish, but it’s also exhausting! I feel like I can’t get away sometimes! She’s pretty good about giving me my space when I need it though, which is nice. As for style and things of that nature, I’ve noticed that there is an unfortunate trend here of men wearing mullets. There’s a word for the style, but I can’t remember it now. It’s so nasty. With teenagers and people my age especially (even women), the greasy, grungy, scraggly look is definitely in. I’m pretty sure it’s a style thing…one would think that university students could at least afford a haircut every once in awhile if they really wanted one. I’m being a bit harsh, but it’s true. Ick.
In other news, some friends and I are taking a trip to the Patagonia in two weeks!! We bought our plane tickets today which were surprisingly pretty cheap…about $134 USD a piece. I can’t wait to go. We’re going to the Torres del Paine National Park, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful in South America. We’ll probably hike and camp, maybe do some biking. We haven’t gotten around to planning out the specifics yet because we’ve all been really busy. We are going during Semana Novata, which is freshman week. We’re leaving on the 19th and returning on the 24th, which should give us four solid days in the park. It should be an amazing experience if everything works out (I especially hope the weather will be okay).
That’s about all I can manage for today. I’ll post all my Valpo and Viña pics pronto :)
lol that is really funny about the mullets. Also I am glad that you dont walk around alone at night lol. Glad you like some of your classes, good luck in deciding which ones to keep!
hahaha! lauren i think mullets must be a spanish-speaking thing. my friend emily sack was in bilbao last summer and was constantly writing about mullets..and when i went to barcelona last year there were also tons of them. how funny!
it might be because soccer players all have them…and they idolize soccer players…? who knows?