The journey begins! I made it yesterday morning to Santiago after about 24 hours of traveling. Surprisingly I didn’t feel that out of it! My connections from Seattle to LA to New York and finally to Santiago went well. On the flight from LA to New York I chatted with a guy who is from the US but lives and works in Argentina. He had been to Chile many times and passed along some cultural quirks and places to go. The flight from New York to Santiago was pretty comfortable considering that I’ve never been on a flight that long before. I watched a few movies, had a tasty chicken and mashed potato dinner with Chilean wine and a breakfast sandwich of turkey and cheese with a side of fruit. I arrived in Santiago a little after 8am local time. Sadly, only one of my two checked bags made it and I had to file a claim with the airlines. Outside I quickly found my ride, Nelson, holding a piece of paper with my name: “Lindsay Munn.” We waited briefly for another guy from the program and then headed out.The ride from the airport in Santiago to Viña del Mar, where I’m taking language classes for the next month at the International Center, is about a hour and a half. Upon arrival in Viña Nelson showed us the International Center and stopped by a place for us to change some money to Chilean pesos. I’m now operating in millions of pesos. It’s about 500 pesos to the dollar. Then Nelson dropped me off at my host house with Cecilia, a middle aged lady who lives by herself in an adorable little apartment 2 blocks from the language school. She was so welcoming and quickly helped me get a hold of the airlines to tell them her address to deliver the bag. The airlines said they would deliver my bag between 5 and 10pm, and at 9:45pm there was a knock on the door and there was my bag! I signed and dated a form and that was that. I was very impressed. Part of me thought that I would never see that bag once I left the airport.Cecilia invited her daughter and son-in-law over lunch with the idea that they could help her understand me. She was pleasantly surprised when that I spoke such good Spanish! What a compliment! I enjoyed chatting with her daughter, Fran and son-in-law, Christian over lunch of a small flank steak, mashed potatoes and pisco sour-the traditional drink of Chile made with pisco (an alcohol that I think tastes like tequila, but I think it’s actually closer to rum), lemon juice, sugar and egg whites. In the afternoon I took a nap. When I woke up Cecilia’s sister and brother-in-law were over. We had a light dinner of bread, jam, cake and tea together and watched some TV.This morning I walked the easy 2 blocks to the language center and met 3 other students from the US who are taking classes this month. We spent about an hour and a half with a teacher who evaluated our Spanish. Tomorrow I start classes officially with one of the girls, Alice, and the professor. We have class 3 hours a day Monday through Thursday and trips on Fridays. This Friday we are going on a winery tour! After going for an empanada and un café con leche (coffee with milk) with the other students, I returned to the apartment and Cecilia and I had lunch. We then went for a walk around Viña and she showed me the some beautiful overlooks of the ocean near by.So far my impressions of Chile are very positive and they don’t talk as fast as I thought they would…but maybe they are just slowing it down for me. Cecilia, my host mom, is awesome. She’s really easy to talk to and makes me feel right at home. Viña is beautiful with mostly clean streets and a gorgeous central plaza. People seem friendly and accommodating to foreigners. I can’t help but compared it to my semester abroad in Nicaragua, which is so incredibly different from what I see now. More on those differences in the next entry!
Chilenismos
So I’ve been here four days now and I have to write again. Chile is both the same and different than I expected. It’s developed, yes. At least it appears developed, according to my good friend Dana’s Chilean boyfriend, Alexis. On Monday night the three of us went out for a walk by the beach. When I commented to Alexis that Viña del Mar seems very developed, organized and clean he said “Yeah, that’s what they want you to think.” In reality Chile still has much more developing to do. I think this is the image that I had of Chile before coming here. I knew it was developed but still has underlining problems of poverty, women’s rights and education. I’m sure I will be more aware of this reality once I get connected with service projects with Rotary in Concepción.Dana is a friend of mine from high school on Bainbridge Island and after meeting Alexis a year and a half ago while studying abroad here she came back last November to be with him. She is now teaching English. Alexis has two years left in his architecture degree program and is currently on summer vacation and working at a clothing store in the mall.Yesterday, Dana and Alexis kindly helped me navigate purchasing a cell phone. Basically all I know is that I really shouldn’t talk at all on my new cell phone because it’s really expensive. So what I should do is call someone and hang up, thus making them call me back and pay for the call. I don’t think this is best way to make friends!Other observations: 1. You have to say hello and goodbye to everyone individually where arriving or leaving. This involves one air kiss to the cheek. On Monday night I went to Mass with my host mom, Cecilia and her family. After the Mass a group of us were standing outside talking. One of Cecilia’s nephews and his girlfriend said they were leaving and went around the circle (probably 10-12 people) and kissed everyone goodbye. Well, they didn’t end up leaving right way and about ten minutes later they went around the entire circle again to actually say goodbye.2. You keep your hands on the table. Apparently is rude to have your hands in your lap while eating a meal. Dana explained it to me as you could be doing something fishy with your hands under table.3. I have to re-learn Spanish. Not completely, but Chileans have a ton of words that only they use. They say “cachai” after everything, which means “Understand?” But they don’t normally wait for your response. It’s more like a filler in between sentences or questions.And the word I knew for boyfriend/girlfriend (novio/novia) means fiancé here. If you are just dating, you and your significant other are each other’s “pololo” or “están poloeando.” And of course everyone wants to know if I have a pololo! 4. Men don’t catcall as much here (in comparison to Nicaragua). I’ve gotten like one or two under your breath “Hermosa” (beautiful), but I’m pleasantly surprised that this doesn’t happen much. In Nicaragua, I once was so frustrated at one guy’s catcall that I turned around and yelled, “I’m not your woman!” at him. I don’t think it fazed him at all. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with that here…so far.6.Viña is beautiful!! The ocean is like a fifteen walk from Cecilia’s apartment. They are lots of beaches, even though the water is really cold. There is a gorgeous, lush park a block away with tall orange flowers and an old house that is now a museum and art school. (Pictures to come!)7. Chilean food is delicious. For breakfast I normally have yogurt, cereal (they call all cereal Corn Flakes-same as Nicaragua), tea and maybe some bread with jam. For lunch I’ve had a lentil and ham soup. Today a corn, milk, onion and meat casserole (I wish I could describe it better, but it was really good!), a salad of lettuce and tomato with olive oil and a small glass of wine. I’m making myself eat tomatoes and drink red wine, even though I don’t really like them! For dinner, which is a smaller meal, I’ve had bread, cheese, salami and a semi-sweet cake. It’s simple, but tasty. And of course there are like a million different kinds of empanadas. Empanadas are baked or fried bread with cheese, meat, eggs, olives-basically whatever inside. They one I had the other day had ground meat, onions, olives and a half of a hard-boiled egg.So far, I’m doing wonderfully and so happy to be here. Cecilia’s daughter, Fran and son-in-law, Christian, come over to her house all the time and they are great. They are in their late 20s, recently married. On Sunday they invited me to go on a hike with them and then to a friend’s house outside of the city to pick fruit from the trees. ¡Qué divertido!
I was super excited last week when Fran, my host mom’s daughter and Christian, her husband, invited me to go for a hike. On Sunday we woke up early and caught a bus out to a town about an hour away, Limache. At the trailhead we paid our 1500 mil pesos ($2.50) entrance fee and headed up. The sign said our trail was rated the most difficult and that it should take 5 hours. It was about 9:30am.I was impressed how well maintained the trail was, clearly marked signs with path changes and distances. The first section was in a beautiful forest with a stream paralleling our path. It was sunny and warm, but not uncomfortable. The trail got steeper as we ascended. After about three hours we reached a plateau where there used to be a mine. We splashed water on our faces from a fresh water fountain and ate our lunches. At this point I was thinking, “Wow, that was a good hike. A solid three hours, a good workout, nice scenery. I’m ready to hike back down and call it a perfect day hike.” Oh I wish!After lunch Christian (who, by the way, had done this hike 3 or 4 times in the past) told Fran and I that he estimated from here it would take two more hours to get to the top. Okay, I’ve had a little break. I can do this. After two and a half hours Fran and I asked how much long Christian thought it would be. His reply: “Oh, we are almost there. Half hour more.” A half hour later: “Seriously, fifteen more minutes. I’m sure.” It continues like this for a while. Finally about three and half hours later (maybe 4, I wasn’t wearing my watch…probably for the best), we finally reached the top of the damn mountain. I won’t lie the view was marvelous. We could see in all directions, even though it was a little hazy.So, going down actually scared me more than going up the mountain. As some of you may know, I have some issues with my ankles. I’m not positive, but I think I’ve rolled/twisted/sprained both of my ankles like four or five times in my life. One of which caused me to leave my summer job in Alaska for two months to recover, much to the delight of my friends who were excited to have me home for a bit. As we headed down I was thinking, “I’ve only been in this country a week and I really don’t want my experience to start/end with an ankle-related issue on a mountain.” So, we went really slowly and carefully down. We reached the plateau where we ate lunch at about 6:30pm. Fran and I were tried of taking our steps so patiently down the steep path, so when we saw a sign for the road for cars we decided to take it despite the fact that it was twice as long.As we enjoyed the much more pleasant road Fran and Christian taught me Chilean children’s songs. We talked about our favorite foods, places we’ve traveled and our families. As we made our way down the sun begun to set. When we finally reached the trailhead at just about 9:30pm. Luckily, we caught a ride into town from some other hikers. And luckily again, we caught the last train out. The bus at that hour apparently would have taken much longer. At 10:30pm I sat down to dinner, barely made it through it, politely refused dessert, considered not showering, then did and went to bed.Christian estimated we hiked 25-30 kilometers (16-18 miles). So there you go. Scaled a mountain, didn’t break an ankle and have had trouble walking for the last 3 days.
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