A Week of Vacation

Since the 11th is a national holiday in Chile, many schools have the entire week after off. I am pretty sure the 18th of September is also a holiday, but I am not positive. Throughout the city of Santiago there are many parades and "Fondas" which I think a similar to fairs the we have in the US. (I did not go to any of these). The festivities equal out to a combination between the 4th of July and New Years. On the 18th there is a barbeque with tons of meat, salad and traditional foods such as empanadas. This meal would be equivalnent to our Thanksgiving because it is a meal shared with relatives and family members.

For vacation, my family took me to Valle del Elqui a town/area up north where there were not the same festivities practiced. It was the country and there did not seem to be anything going on. My family took me to "nearby" towns that had artisan shops where were cool. The place where we were liked alot like the deserts of Arizona and Utah and did not have much to do. Also there was barely any internet which is why I relate it to my Vermont house, with maybe 3 less stars For those of you who have been there...you know what I am talking about. I was there from Tuesday night until Sunday morning). Not to mention the 6hr car ride up there that was included. The drive home was beautiful, most of the time. The road we took was parallel to the coast. Sad to admit this was one of the highlights of the trip.

September 11

Similar to us in the United States, September 11 is a historic day throughout Chile. In Chile on September 11, 1973 was when President Salvador Allende was over thrown by the military coup. All throughout chile people are celebrating. It is a national holiday and is celebrated for a week. Therefore many schools are out for the entire next week. Mine included :) Before this day in gym classes throughout the country, the students learn the different traditional dances and each grade has a different dance to learn. The dances are so well performed and so fun to watch. The colors, music and enthusiasm from everyone makes it a spectacular performance. I was practicing to perform the dances with them but opted out to take pictures. I am happy I did. My favorite dance was performed by students in "cuatro medio" which is equivalant to our senior year in the US. It is called "la tirana." It is a dance from the north of chile. The music and costumes were beautiful.

This is a photo of what was performed by "tercero medio", equivalent to junior year.

photo 1: performing "la tirana"

photo 2: boys dress for "la tirana"

photo 3: girls dress for "la tirana"

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

Public Transportation

After my first week of having the privilege of getting my host parents to bring me to and from school. Day 2 of my second week I was on my own. However, taking the 2 buses that drive on large main streets is nothing like riding the NYC subways for the 1st time and not knowing which way you are supposed to be traveling so I would have to admit it is a piece of cake. However, today while on the bus, my friend and I were trying to move towards the back door while the bus was still stopped. Just as we were about to reach the spot we wanted to be in the bus started moving again and I was thrown back...practically fell on the floor, luckly the bus happened to be really crowded and my friend grabbed me so I didn't actually hit the ground. But I am sure everyone on the bus enjoyed a small show from the "gringo" in a school uniform :P

The subway system is the same as all subway systems. There are only 4 lines I think that run throughout Santiago which makes it pretty manageable. It does take a while though to get from certain parts of the city to other parts. But on the most part it's pretty convenient.

Escuela

Yesterday, was my first day of school at Colegio San Juan Evangelista. I have a wonderful uniform that I wear which includes a blue skirt, polo shirt, black shoes and navy tights. I can wear any colored blue/black sweater because there is no heat that circulates the school. In the mornings it makes it alittle chilly, but as the day progresses it starts to warm up. The school is K-12 however they have a different system for grades which I have not really caught on to yet. I am in "curso III C" which I think is similar to 11th grade because there is one more year ahead of us. We do not change classrooms for the classes unless we are going to one of the few sciences or elective classes. There are 3 homerooms for year III and my homeroom has about 20+ students. I have meet many new people however with everyone having similar names and with people coming up to me constantly it has been hard to remember them. The classes I am in a pretty good, some are a little boring, but I am understanding a lot which is not what I expected. My math class today was very easy because it was something I had already learned. The teacher student relationship is nothing in comparison to the US. It is a more friend to friend basis the relationship and the students and teachers have jokes with each other which I could not picture having with most teachers in the US. The school day starts at 8 and goes until 430 every day except Wed when it then ends at 120. Extremely long days. The schedule goes 2hrs of class 15 min break 2hrs 15 min break 1hr then 1hr for lunch then 2hrs then school is done. I'm getting used to it. There are no after school sports I don't think, but people stay after playing "futbol" and basketball.