Numerous Activities

This last week has been so busy. About a week or two ago, I had two big tests and handed in about a 13-page paper. The test that I took in one of my classes will count for 50 percent of my final grade. After having completed so much of those class demands, this week was more relaxing. It helped that Thursday was a holiday. Anyway, I am going to discuss of few things that I have done lately.

Okay, last weekend was the birthday party of my host brother, Felipe. A bunch of his friends came over (about 20-25) and we ate and talked. Here is a picture of him and I after the majority of the guests left.

My host brother and I are also in a program called Huellas. It is basically like a big-brother, big-sister program. We are a big-brother, big-sister to a little girl. Here is a picture of her and I when she came with the other kids from the orphanage to the Church. Last weekend we also visited the orphanage to spend time with the kids.




Okay, moving on, this week has been so busy. Monday night a friend and I went out for supper. Tuesday after class, a classmate and I went for a walk along the coast to see the seals. Before coming to Chile I had never seen seals. They are very amusing to me. I took a bunch of photos and filmed them as well. The thing most interesting to me was the following: in the picture are a bunch of seals laying on that cement thing out in the water. They barked some and moved a little bit. I wondered how they got up on that thing since it is about 4 feet out of the water. Suddenly, we saw a seal playing and jumping in the water. It then jumped up on the side of that cement slab and wiggled its way up and waddled the length of the cement to be by the other seals. It was awesome. I screamed!-haha. :) I also noticed star fish on the sides of the cement slab, which cannot be seen in this picture. Moving on, Tuesday night, two friends and I started a Bible study. Wednesday afternoon 4 of us went for a walk around the city. We saw the sunset and took some pictures. It was gorgeous! God's creation is amazing. He made the sunset, and I simply snapped the photo of it. I am including one picture I took of the sunset and also one picture that a friend took of Felipe and I in front of it. Then, that night I went to another city about 30 minutes away with some friends to a birthday party. It was fun. I am including a picture of us there.

Then, Thursday I got a call from a friend asking me to go for a bike ride. I was excited. I hadn't done that yet in Chile. I borrowed my host siblings' bike and headed off. I thought we were going to be gone a short while...not so much. We were gone many hours. We rode bike from Vina del Mar, to Renaca, and then part way to Concon (and back again). Almost all of this was along the ocean. It was gorgeous!


Then, on Friday morning, I went surfing.....yes, SURFING!!! A friend from the Church invited me to go. He is a surfing instructor. Anyway, surfing is tough. I have gone water-skiing before. In my opinion, that is a lot easier because the boat does a lot of the work. Yes, the skier has to wait in a ready position with the skis facing the right direction and then has to balance to get up. However, from there I think that one mostly has to stand with knees bent as the boat pulls him/her along. However, to give you an idea about surfing...okay first of all, one must be a sufficient distance from shore. My instructor explained to me that it is important to read the waves, to see whether it is a good one.


Anyway, after that is decided, I had to lay on my board, balancing in the middle...not too far to the right or left, neither to the front or back, or it would tip over (as it did many times). Then, I was supposed to start swimming, as I was balanced on this board. Imagine...staying balanced on this board while swimming without hanging onto the board..haha. Okay, anyway, after about 3 meters of swimming, the wave should reach me. If I have enough velocity and the wave is big enough, I should be pushed out in front of it. Then, after scanning to my left and right to make sure that I am in front of it, it is now time to pop up. That was probably the hardest part: to go from a laying position to standing up in one smooth motion without tipping the board. I fell numerous times. Pablo, my instructor, sometimes was behind me and gave me a push to increase my velocity before the wave even got to me. One time when I actually got up, I was so excited that I started screaming. I then fell. Haha. Also, after each fall, I needed to swim back out further (countering waves in the meantime) to a location from where I could start again. This is not the easiest either because the waves push you back towards the shore. Also, doing this with a board is especially tough. It should be easier to swim on the board against the waves, but I kept wanting to drag the board or push it, because swimming and balancing while on the board was very difficult for me (especially as waves kept crashing over me or pushing against me). Haha. :) I am probably making this sound like a soap opera. But I really just want to explain what surfing entails. As with many things, it is way harder than it looks. (Even though where I was learning was in a place with smaller waves and shallower water.) Anyway, it was really fun, and I am really sore today. But, I feel that it was worth it. Two other quick comments...since it is the ocean, it is salt water. Secondly, the ocean is so cold here, because we are so far south. In fact, a current comes up from Antarctica. Since the water is so cold here, sharks aren't really a concern like they are in many other surfing locations. I actually don't think I could have done this without a wetsuit, which kept me pretty warm. I also had a hat most of the time. The only cold parts were my hands and feet. However, after getting out of the water and out of my wet suit(s), I put on like 3 layers.

Then, I had a class on Friday night. Afterward, I went to a friend's house to have a pajama party. There were 3 of us in total: 2 Chilean friends and I. My friends and I made Gringa pizza with some ingredients from the U.S., and we watched some movies. We also played UNO (they play it somewhat differently). :)
Finally, today (Sunday), I went to Church and afterward went to a surprise birthday party in a city about 40 minutes from here. It was fun. We ate, talked, and did karaoke.
In conclusion, I feel very blessed to have so many opportunities to spend time with Chileans.

School / Day to Day Life

Two blogs back to back- woohoo! haha.
Until now, I have mostly written blogs about excursions or special occasions. However, in this blog, I want to explain a little about day to day life, especially school, which is what takes up the majority of my time.
As for school here, it is a lot different than being on a campus in the U.S. Here the university buildings are spread across 2-3 cities. Therefore, depending on the day, I can either walk to class and arrive in about 15 minutes or I may have to take the metro (train system) or micro (bus system) to the neighboring city. This takes more like 30 minutes. On certain occasions I take a colectivo (taxi with designated route).
My classes usually start around 11 a.m. As a whole, things start later here and finish later. For instance, on Fridays I have classes until 8:30 p.m. As for my classes, I chose to take all classes with Chilean students, rather than classes only for gringos (United States students). Also in choosing my classes with Chileans, I tried to choose those that would not have many gringos. To my surprise, in 5 out of my 6 classes I am the only gringa. Why is this good? Well, it forces me to talk in Spanish. Otherwise, it would be easier to do homework and study in English with the other gringos. For instance, the other day I gave a dissertation in one of my classes. To help prepare for this presentation, a Chilean classmate met with me for more than four hours. If I was in a class where half of the students were gringos, I think the possibility of that happening would significantly drop. However, there are also 'bad' things about it too. For instance, if I don't understand something due to the language barrier, I am probably the only one who doesn't understand. Whereas, if I were in classes with other gringos, we could all talk to the professor, expressing our confusion and frustrations. In one of my classes the other day, called 'Video Workshop', the professor explained to us that we were not going to make any videos at all this semester. Haha. One has to laugh.
Okay, what else? As for lunch, my hostmom makes me a sacklunch for the days I do not return home (which are the same days I go to the other city by metro or micro). Otherwise, I return home to eat.
I don't think I have many pictures to include on the school aspect. But, a few other things I have done with friends are: go to the mall to play pool, go out to eat, get together to watch a movie, go fishing, go on a Church retreat, etc. I am including some of those miscellaneous pictures. (The second to last picture is of my host brother and I. The rest of the people in these pictures with me are friends that I know through the Church.)

Historical Visit to Santiago

From the title, I understand that some people may be uninterested right away from reading this blog. No worries. Feel free to skip this one. Also, just a heads up, it may be kind of sad. However, I feel that we as human beings should learn from history. In that way, it can be useful.
On September 11, 1973, there was a military coup in Chile, where a leader named General Pinochet came into power, attacking the presidential palace and overthrowing the government led by President Allende. Allende died, and Pinochet took control. There were significant human rights abuses. Many people who may have worked for the government under Allende or were not in favor of the military group, all of a sudden disappeared. Some were later found dead. Some got taken to detention centers. Some were forced out of the country. Some were never heard from again.
A place we visited yesterday is called the Center of Detention "Villa Grimaldi". It was a very sad place. This was a secret place where people got tortured. Some forms of torture were water submersion, electrocution, and graphically worse. The current Chilean president, President Michelle Bachelet, was taken with her mom to this detention center, where both were tortured. I do not know where, but her dad was also tortured and died in relation to these events. Kids were even kidnapped during this time period. It especially struck me that it seems so recent. Since then, Chile has become a democracy. And this topic is not talked about very much, as it provokes much pain, rage, and mixed emotions/feelings.
Therefore, I am not giving much for opinions, but rather merely listing a few facts that were talked about yesterday.
Actually, one of my professors told us that his dad was out in the street after curfew during the time of Pinochet's control. Therefore, a guard shot him in the leg. I cannot imagine these events.
We also went to an archival place, where there are rooms of information and accounts of the victims during this historical time period. For instance, the families came to this place and reported the time of disappearance and what the victim was last seen wearing. There are currently many court cases going on in regards to these happenings.
Another place we visited was called the Solidarity Foundation, which before consisted of an organization that worked with imprisoned people during this time period. Now, it works with the poor. Our guide/speaker actually lost her job back in 1973, as she worked for the government. She also was imprisoned a few times but always released. To the contrary, some of her co-workers were killed or disappeared.
Finally, we visited the General Cemetery. It is the most famous cemetery in Chile. Many of Chile's previous presidents were buried there, such as President Allende, who had control before the military coup. This cemetery is huge. The idea was to make it like a city. Therefore, within it, there are street names, etc. Some of the tombs are actually buildings in themselves. It was unbelievable. I can't even get an idea of how big this place is. While we were there, we saw at least 3 funeral processions going on.
In conclusion, this excursion was very different than the other ones. However, as many of the tour guides said, it is important to learn about it "para que nunca sea mas" (so that it never happens again). One thing that struck me was how recent this is. A memorial that we saw included names upon names of politically targeted individuals, included babies and children ages 9, 15, etc. This was so sad! I imagined a brother of that 9-year old, who could be in his 40's or 50's now, still grieving over this. Obviously, it is very recent, and I was surprised how little this is talked about or eluded to, at least from a foreigner's perspective. However, I then thought about September 11, 2001, of the United States. Yes, the nation was affected and is different because of it, and yes, people are still grieving losses of family members or friends. However, it is probably something that a foreigner may not realize upon a visit to the United States, because it is not something that is talked about very openly on a frequent basis.