After two weeks

So it has been two weeks since my arrival in Santiago, Chile. Everything is still looking up and I continue to climb the "exchange student mountain" so far without any boulders to over take. School is great besides the 2hr classes and ending at 1630. However, I have a week vacation for the national holiday starting Friday afternoon! I understand a lot of what is going on in class especially the math that we have been assigned by our sub teacher since our teacher is away on a ten day class trip. It is SAT math so it is a piece of cake :) I take a wide range of classes: art, music, theater, religion, math, spanish, advanced english, philosophy, science and gym. In the english class I correct and translate paragraphs from spanish to english. Translating is harder than I thought because not only am I translating for something to make sense in my mind, but it actually has to make sense when written on paper. After school a bunch of students just hangout after getting snacks at the local mini-mart near the bus stops on the main street near school. I take the bus back with one of my friends and sometimes we have other students who ride on the same route as us. The company on the 30-minute bus ride defiantly makes the trip go by much faster. The weather here has not been great, but a few days ago the sun came out and the views from my window and even from school are spectacular of the "cordilleras." Clear sky and the white capped snow mountains. This week there is prediction of sunny with clouds and with the past few days of tons of rain I am hoping the forecast is correct.

First Rotary Confrence

1st Rotary Meeting was Sunday Sept. 6. I was picked up at 9 by my rotary advisor and we went to a Rotary building for one of the sections of Santiago. It was a nice building besides the fact they did not have any heat. We had a bunch of different speeches that were given to us. A lot were about the rotary rules in the program. Then they had a student from New Zealand share her experience in Chile so far since she had been here for 7 months already. Then a couple students who were from Chile shared their experience on their exchange trips. Then the Chilean FBI like people came...they are called the PDI and they gave us speeches about sexual abuse. Then we all went and had lunch. The rotary club organized a children's performing group from Maipu, a section in Santiago, to perform a few traditional dances and songs. It was a very organized meeting or so it seemed and it was fun getting to meet all the other exchange students from all over the world. I wouldn't say I am looking forward to the next meeting because they do take all day.

Weather: downpour and not sunny. With the amount of rain they got there were mud slides in different parts of the city and the roads were flooding. You also might think people would drive cautiously in the rain...not the case because on the way to the conference we passed an accident with a man who was lying in the street after getting hit by a car. Not a great way to start saturday mornings.

Daily Weekday Schedule

6:50 - Wakeup/shower

7:30 - Leave for school (20/30 minute car ride)

8:15 - Classes start (Each class is 2hrs long except for the one right before lunch which is 1hr. I have a total of 7hrs of classes before lunch...then lunch which is an hour. Then 2hrs after lunch.)

1630/1700 - Chill with people from school at corner store while waiting for Micro(bus)

1730 - "Tomar once" - snack time

2100 - Dinner

00 - Sleep