Yesterday night I met six American students and 2 Chilean students at the mall right down the block from my house. The inside of the mall is really similar to most American malls, but there is also an artisan craft tent outside where they sell all sorts of beautiful handmade goods and food. We wandered for a few hours, got some helado (it tastes like a mix between ice cream and gelato) and some chocolate covered strawberries, and then found our way back to our homes.
After I returned from the mall I ate a late dinner with my family, and then watched some Spanish TV with my host sister before going to bed. They are really into game shows here in Chile, and tonight we watched one where two high school teams compete in physical competitions against each other to win bragging rights and money for their schools.
In the morning, I woke up early for my first day of classes! I am starting to realize what my family meant when they said it was cold here! This morning I could see my breath when I woke up. In Chile, there is no such thing as central heating for the homes, so it can get pretty cold overnight. My younger host sister Camila was sick today (strep I think) so she didn’t go to school, so it was just my host mom and I that were awake. She packed me lunch and helped me make breakfast, and then I was on my way to school by myself! Luckily I was able to remember how to get to the bus station (its down one block and across the street from my house) and I waited there until the next green and white bus pulled up. My friend Lauren got on a few stops later, so it was nice to have someone that could speak English to ride with. However, we stick out like a sore thumb from the rest of the Chilean community, so wherever we go, we constantly get strange looks because we are “gringas” (white girls).
When we arrived at La Casa Central at La Catolica, I went to the international studies office to talk to Macarena, who is in charge of my pasantia (internship). She introduced me to another student, Natalia, who showed me and my friend Martin (another American student whose internship is in the same building as mine) how to get to our internships. Our pasantias are actually in Vina del Mar, not Valparaiso, so we took a red and gray bus headed towards Alvarez back into Vina, and then transferred to a blue and white bus which took us up the hill to the top of a mountain, where the TV and radio stations were located. We got a tour of the stations from one of the workers, and he told us to come back next Monday to start work. I learned that Chile is in the process of switching from analog to digital, so they have some of both kinds of equipment.
There are 7 national news stations in Chile, 4 large stations and 3 smaller ones. The station in Valparaiso is the 2nd of the 3 smaller national stations in the country. The offices and studios at the TV station are attached to each other through outdoor hallways and stone steps and the inside of the buildings are all wood, so it has a very different feel to it than American TV stations. It was extremely foggy this morning, so at the top of the cerro (hill) we could barely see the roof of the station, let alone the signal towers above us. When our tour was over we returned to school using the same two Micros and then Martin and I met up with several other students for lunch. After we ate, we toured the area around the city before our first class at 2pm. 18 of the 28 students on the program are in my 2pm class, and the professor seems very nice. He is actually bilingual, but he teaches in Spanish and will only switch to English if we are really confused.
After class, the entire group met up at the cafeteria in La Casa Central for a conversation session with some Chilean students. Most of the Chilean students that came were English majors, and since it was the first session (we meet with them every Tuesday) the program directors made us do some icebreakers to get to know each other. We ended up having a dance party DJ’d by one of the directors of the program, and we taught each other the lyrics to popular American and Chilean music. The Chilean students were quiet but extremely nice, and they offered to take us out with them this weekend, which I think will be really fun! The other American students and I have begun speaking a strange combination of Spanglish with each other, mixing sentences with Spanish and English words. When our program director heard us all talking to each other today, she couldn’t stop laughing. This afternoon I helped my younger host sister with her Spanish homework (she is learning how to read!).
Later tonight, I think some of the other students and I will go to the movie theater to see the movie “Que Paso Ayer? Parte Dos” (in English, this means The Hangover Part 2!!) We are all interested to see if the movie will be as funny in a foreign language. Tomorrow, if the weather is nice, we are all hoping to go to the beach after our morning classes are over!
After I returned from the mall I ate a late dinner with my family, and then watched some Spanish TV with my host sister before going to bed. They are really into game shows here in Chile, and tonight we watched one where two high school teams compete in physical competitions against each other to win bragging rights and money for their schools.
In the morning, I woke up early for my first day of classes! I am starting to realize what my family meant when they said it was cold here! This morning I could see my breath when I woke up. In Chile, there is no such thing as central heating for the homes, so it can get pretty cold overnight. My younger host sister Camila was sick today (strep I think) so she didn’t go to school, so it was just my host mom and I that were awake. She packed me lunch and helped me make breakfast, and then I was on my way to school by myself! Luckily I was able to remember how to get to the bus station (its down one block and across the street from my house) and I waited there until the next green and white bus pulled up. My friend Lauren got on a few stops later, so it was nice to have someone that could speak English to ride with. However, we stick out like a sore thumb from the rest of the Chilean community, so wherever we go, we constantly get strange looks because we are “gringas” (white girls).
When we arrived at La Casa Central at La Catolica, I went to the international studies office to talk to Macarena, who is in charge of my pasantia (internship). She introduced me to another student, Natalia, who showed me and my friend Martin (another American student whose internship is in the same building as mine) how to get to our internships. Our pasantias are actually in Vina del Mar, not Valparaiso, so we took a red and gray bus headed towards Alvarez back into Vina, and then transferred to a blue and white bus which took us up the hill to the top of a mountain, where the TV and radio stations were located. We got a tour of the stations from one of the workers, and he told us to come back next Monday to start work. I learned that Chile is in the process of switching from analog to digital, so they have some of both kinds of equipment.
There are 7 national news stations in Chile, 4 large stations and 3 smaller ones. The station in Valparaiso is the 2nd of the 3 smaller national stations in the country. The offices and studios at the TV station are attached to each other through outdoor hallways and stone steps and the inside of the buildings are all wood, so it has a very different feel to it than American TV stations. It was extremely foggy this morning, so at the top of the cerro (hill) we could barely see the roof of the station, let alone the signal towers above us. When our tour was over we returned to school using the same two Micros and then Martin and I met up with several other students for lunch. After we ate, we toured the area around the city before our first class at 2pm. 18 of the 28 students on the program are in my 2pm class, and the professor seems very nice. He is actually bilingual, but he teaches in Spanish and will only switch to English if we are really confused.
After class, the entire group met up at the cafeteria in La Casa Central for a conversation session with some Chilean students. Most of the Chilean students that came were English majors, and since it was the first session (we meet with them every Tuesday) the program directors made us do some icebreakers to get to know each other. We ended up having a dance party DJ’d by one of the directors of the program, and we taught each other the lyrics to popular American and Chilean music. The Chilean students were quiet but extremely nice, and they offered to take us out with them this weekend, which I think will be really fun! The other American students and I have begun speaking a strange combination of Spanglish with each other, mixing sentences with Spanish and English words. When our program director heard us all talking to each other today, she couldn’t stop laughing. This afternoon I helped my younger host sister with her Spanish homework (she is learning how to read!).
Later tonight, I think some of the other students and I will go to the movie theater to see the movie “Que Paso Ayer? Parte Dos” (in English, this means The Hangover Part 2!!) We are all interested to see if the movie will be as funny in a foreign language. Tomorrow, if the weather is nice, we are all hoping to go to the beach after our morning classes are over!
Viva La Chile!
Julia Marie
Aerial view of the UCVTV station
