where's dinner?

It's funny the things you would never think to worry about when traveling abroad. Eating habits for example. I assumed breakfast, lunch and dinner were a cross cultural habit. Turns out they're not.

Yesterday, my mom explained to me that we were having appetizers before lunch so I went outside and enjoyed a cocktail, some chips, some chipop fruity puffs (they're like if trix and puffy cheetos had a baby minus the cheese), nuts, etc. My brother then brought over hot dogs (which I have never eaten in my life) but I missed breakfast for a run and I was starving so I went for it. FIRST HOT DOG OF MY LIFE!

I was so proud and full and happy until I walked inside to see lunch. The dining room table was covered with multiple types of salad, a plate of tomatoes, another with cucumber, another with a rice and mayonnaise mixture (they loveeee mayonnaise), chicken AND steaks. What the heck?! We just ate hot dogs! So I ask the lovely exchange student who lived with my family two years ago and happened to be here for the weekend what was going on. She was kind enough to explain I better be real full because lunch is the only meal of the day. Dinner and breakfast both only consist of toast and tea.

So today, day two of no dinner, my friends and I went out looking for lunch. We essentially took an elevator, "Ascensor Concepcion", straight up one of the many steep hills of Valparaiso to Cerro Concepcion. Such a cute little colorful neighborhood with beautiful views! We of course found a little pizza place and stuffed ourselves full of pizza... and then ice cream. 

our ride up!

cutest b&b ever

colorful little street

"We speak your language"= easy choice!
Too bad they didn't speak our language but good thing we spoke theirs.

Graffiti is HUGE in Valpo.
To the extent that the buildings are simply canvases.

zoe and i chatting while our friends shopped

Edward Cullen, le quiero!

It was starting to feel like my life in the United States and my life in Chile had nothing in common and a lot of things are different. I'm living on a beach, speaking spanish, going out on way too many week nights. People look at you like a crazy person when you try to shake their hand but kissing a stranger is perfectly acceptable. I don't have a boyfriend (around to hang out with) but I do have younger siblings. Acceptable personal space is about half of that in the US and the majority of the people here smoke which results in people smoking in your face. Making out in public spaces in the norm and cell phones don't charge you by the minute but by the second (maybe that's why Chileans talk so darn fast).

Right when I was starting to think that there was nothing here I could relate to my life back home, I saw my little 13 year old sisters face when someone mentioned a Volvo. Why? Because Edward Cullen drives a Volvo in Crepusculo! Duh! And for everyone out there who is wondering what in the world Crepusculo is, it is Twilight in Spanish. And to make the situation even funnier, she sings Justin Bieber in the shower.

I guess only so much can change on the other side of the world. Pictures of my new room to come as soon as my camera charges.

Tengo sueno. (I'm a sleepy lady)

Last night we went to the bar with someone from our host family. Unfortunately, my oldest sibling is 15 and drinking age here is 18 so he couldn't come. Because of that, my host mom sent someone who works for her at the health clinic to be my bar buddy. It was a little weird because everyone else was talking about their families but he doesn't really know them so we had to find other things to talk about. It was really fun though. Instead of staying out until 6:00, I ended up going to bed after hanging out at someone's house for a while (at 2:00 am) before everyone went to the clubs.

Also, today I moved in with my host family and they are all very nice. I'm their 10th student that they've hosted so they are very used to having americans around. When I got here, my host mom, 15 year old brother, 13 year old sister, host mom's boyfriend, his 14 year old daughter and two family friends had lunch. Three hours with a roomful of very very fast speaking Chileans was a little more than I was ready for. I'm excited to get to know them better but for now, it's time for a siesta!

Es Viernes!

So yesterday our adventure to Parque Italia was wonderful. I however was wrong in my last post that they were going to drop us off and then we would interview random strangers. We met in the hotel (in Vina del Mar) and then they said go to your destination (in Valparaiso) and interview people. Good luck getting there!

After having a bread salesmen flag down a bus for us  (no they don't just stop for you) we jumped on the bus. No one told us you need to pay when you get on so we just walked on by only to watch others and realized we forget to pay. With the help of our bus driver, a women selling crocs and about a two dollars in change, we made it! I didn't take pictures though because I was trying to minimize the whole tourist vibe.

Tonight we are finally meeting members of our host family... at a bar. Only in Chile. Our brothers and sisters/ cousins if we don't have any siblings are going out with us tonight. Dinner at 8:30 and we're staying out until 6:00 am. Ya right like I can pull that off. People here go out at midnight and they laugh at us for complaining because in Argentine partying starts at 3:00 am. Wish me luck (and energy?)

getting a little scary...

Turns out I came here to learn and take classes and research or something like that. Today, in order to get more comfortable interviewing people, our professors are dropping us off in random parks and sites throughout the city. Once we're there, we get to interview strangers in Spanish about what they think of the park and if they know any of the history of it. We also have to somehow work into questions about a food that we were assigned. If only I already knew what Cuchufli was.

Yesterday afternoon, we took a boat tour of the coastline to see Vina del Mar and Valparaiso from the ocean. Lots of sea lions :)

Vina del mar (where I'm living)

Valparaiso

dia dos

So I think the hole in the ozone layer thing may be true... I wrote the last post right when we got back from the beach. After a few hours to let it ripen and a relatively painful shower, we came to the conclusion that I have a horrible sunburn covering the entirety of the back of my legs. Oops.

This morning we started Orientation with a mini history lesson on Chile and of course the name game. Everyone seems really friendly and I can't wait to get to know them better. We have a 2 hour break for lunch and as Americans, we all finished in 30 minutes and everyone left for an hour on the beach. I'm giving my sunburn a day to not blister. 

The food is interesting but I'm sure it will grow on me. Eating here is always an adventure because they have different names for all of the foods than normal spanish so when someone tells me what I'm eating, I have no idea what they're saying. An avocado is no longer an aguacate but now a palta. New names for corn, beans, nectarines. So much to keep track of so I just eat what I'm served. Last night, it was a sweet corn bread of sorts on top and the inside was filled with beef, chicken, not pitted olives and an entire hard boiled egg. It wasn't too bad though.

Having lots of fun and miss you all. I'm putting up more pictures from yesterday because before I could upload them all, we left for the bars. Three beers for $1.30 though, not too bad :)

so much color

beach view in vina del mar

the Presidential Palace aka the president's summer beach house

the view of Valparaiso

day one

Hello all!

I woke up this morning to my airplane neighbor asking me to open the window to see if we could see land yet. I was sitting right over the wing and to my sleepy little eyes it looked like there was ocean and clouds to our left and mountains and clouds to the right. Very confusing. Turns out we were right over the shoreline! And sure enough, where we were flying over, the mountains fall straight into the ocean. No beach, no flatland. Mountains... ocean.

So we went on a little drive from Santiago to reach the beautiful beach city of Vina del Mar. We had lunch as a group and after sitting and chatting for quite a while, I stood up and said "I'm going to the beach if anyone else wants to come." Can you believe I am living within a walk from the beach?! Our director very promptly said "Advice first. First, do NOT wear your name tags or everyone will know you're a tourist and try to take you money. Second, wear lots of sunscreen. We are right under a hole in the ozone layer and you will get very sunburnt (no idea if this is true or not but I reapplied lots). Third, because Jill is leading, she is responsible if anything goes wrong."

Luckily nothing went wrong and we got to spend our first day "studying abroad" lying on the beach, tanning, dipping our toes in the very cold water and chit chatting in Spanish with the very very friendly Chileans.

Orientation begins tomorrow along with our Spanish placement test but in the meantime, I could get used to this. I didn't bring my camera to the beach but did take a few pictures when we were checking out town and walking around the neighborhood.

valentine's day

Best Valentine's Day EVER! I got to do everything I love and I didn't even have to go to school :)

First, I made some cute little cookies.

Then, I got to go out on a date with Matt AND ski on a beautiful, sunny day. 

What more could I ask for?

And of course, there are pictures:

it's coming!

I still have two more weeks until I leave for Chile but it finally feels close.

In my excitement, I started googling pictures and man almighty do I have a lot to look forward to!

Look what I found!