People

My little brother, Ian (trying to look cool lol). He's 11, will be 12 in November I think. He's pretty annoying, but usually I am ok with that, because I've never had an annoying brother before. I feel kind of bad for him too. I get the sense that sometimes he feels left out because, well first of all, he doesn't live with his own parents (don't know the story on that), and also I think he might feel that my host mom is more interested in her 20-something daughters and foreign exchange students and her granddaughter than in him. I think sometimes she is. Anyway, he mostly just wants to use my computer or look at my American stuff. He really liked my navy blue bandana, so I gave it to him, and he gave me his favorite baseball card (rookie card for a Seattle player) in return, even though I told him he didn't have too. He also was really excited once because I gave him an American dollar.



My host-neice Amanda, chillin' in her grandparents' bed and watching tv while my host mom cooks lunch. hahaha.




And Sarai. This picture is from a couple weeks ago when it was colder, hence the hopping around in her sleeping bag. Haha. But I don't think I've posted a picture of her, so there it is. I thought it fit in well with the picture of Amanda. lol

Sunday

Sunday was a bit of a miserable day. I got my first (and hopefully last!) flea, and ended up with over 20 bites on my back. I pinched a nerve in my neck and could barely move my head all day. The wind was super-strong and freezing cold. Etc. (It wasn’t entirely bad. I do really like the church I’ve been going to. Its near a friend’s house—we were going to go together—and I like the music better there, the priest speaks more clearly, and it’s a prettier (older) church too!) Anyway… we went on an excursion on Sunday too. It wasn’t too fantastic of an excursion, just because we didn’t go inside anywhere! We started near the former regional government building (the ex-Intendencia), went up an ascensor to the Cerros (hills) Alegre and Concepción. A beautiful area—a few of the houses there inspired much of the architecture and colors of Valparaíso. A lot of immigrants settled there. We saw the Palacio Baburizza (house of a Yugoslavian immigrant), inside of which is an art museum that we did not see (although I’m not sure its still open?). We walked to the big Anglican and Lutheran churches, some of the first Protestant churches in Chile/South America (1858 and 1897, respectively)… but again did not enter. Then we walked around some more. It was more of a “these are some places you should visit on your own sometime” sort of tour. It wasn’t horrible—we did see some really neat houses, and more fantastic views. I think my not feeling too well just made it seem worse. Don’t worry though, I’m feeling much better now even though my back still itches and I’m still cold. Haha. Today was much warmer and so I took a long (too long) walk, and bought some cookies. :-)


The ex-Intendencia



Palacio Baburizza



Cool building- I think its a cafe or restaurant or something now...



Anglican Church



Lutheran Church, from a distance

Sorry for the triple- new posts! I was a bit behind.I’m behind on the photo albums too… those will go up later.

Cookies!

On Saturday morning, I made cookies, and I think that is worth a story in itself. First of all, Chilenos are strange about cooking.
1. My host mom couldn't understand why I bought a measuring cup and spoons. For example, she told Sarai and me "Just use the whole bottle [of peanut butter]" (in Spanish of course) We measured it out, and we used about half a bottle.
2. She also could not understand why I wanted both sugar and brown sugar. I told her I didn't know, it is what the recipe calls for! Still didn't understand. "Well, they have different tastes"... still didn't understand.
3. The ovens don't have degree markings. How are you supposed to know what to set it for?

Anyway... the cookies turned out pretty good. Not as good as when we make them at home, probably because the brown sugar had a weird texture (it wasn't fine and clumpy, but loose like regular sugar and the grains were really big), and because the chocolate I bought was not all that great. But they were good nonetheless, and they lasted all of oh, maybe 7 hours. The picture below is what was left after Sarai and I each took one or two when we got back from our excursion around 5pm, and at 7pm I took the last one to stash in my room for Sunday. I know there are a lot of people in my house, but geez!



yummmmm...

Saturday

On Saturday we had another excursion. This one was to Pablo Neruda’s house in Valparaíso, “La Sebastiana”, and to an open-air museum. The first picture is of the view from his house, which were the only pictures we were allowed to take from inside the house. Sad, because his houses are really interesting—he collected all sorts of random things. Colored glass bottles, ship models and ship parts, interesting artwork, all sorts of knick-knacks. The walls are all painted in bright colors too. The second picture is from the outside, of the house itself.




The open-air museum was interesting. Not really my kind of art, but interesting because it was all of Valparaíso in one area. The magnificent views, the bright houses, winding streets, etc. The Museo a Cielo Abierto (translates directly—open-sky museum) is a series of 20 murals, commissioned by my university in 1992, painted by famous Chilean artists on the sides of houses and apartment buildings along a few streets clustered on the Cerro (hill) Bellavista. Some of them represent things that unify all of Chile—mountains, like in Mural 12 (the first mural below), or bread (not posted). Not all of the murals are quite as random and abstract as these two, but pretty close. The first picture here is just of a row of houses along the way, another view you’ll find on a lot of postcards and things.

Ohhh, Chile

Chile is an odd place.

For example, next week is the history department's big "Celebrate History" week or something. What does that mean for me? No history classes. Apparently part of the celebration includes cancelling all classes from period 3-4 on from Tuesday through Friday. Even weirder, that means if you have a history class on any of those days in period 1-2, at 8:15 in the morning, you still have to go.

The micros are really weird. Micro=bus. The micros apparently are independently operated, which means that although each number has its own route and all, there is no schedule. Which is bad. But the good side is that you often don't have to be at a bus stop to catch a bus- just wave and the driver will stop. Also, you can argue with the bus driver. Regular fare is usually 280-400 pesos (~56-80 cents), depending on where you are going, but if you have a student ID, its 130-150 pesos (~26-30 cents). We don't have our student IDs yet, but we do have papers that say we are registered at PUCV, and also our student IDs from the US. You show it to the bus driver and give him 150 pesos, and he'll be like "no" and you just say "No, I'm a student!" and he'll (usually) grudgingly let you get on the bus. Nice, although I can't wait until we have our regular IDs and don't have to argue.

In other fun news for the week, yesterday in my contemporary art class we watched Marie Antoinette, starring Kirsten Dunst. We watched it in English, with Spanish subtitles. I was the only non-Chilean in the class. It was pretty awesome.

Also, yesterday I had my last "first" class. I hadn't had my Origins of Christianity class yet. I really really liked it. Its going to be a great class I think.

Esquiar!

Well, yesterday was the big ski trip to Valle Nevado. It was absolutely amazing. The views were incredible- good thing, or else it wouldn't have been worth all the money (super-expensive! especially considering we had to rent skis and coats and all that) or the ride there (almost 2 hours to Santiago, and then over 2 more in a bus already completely full of people but then also with all of our skis, boots, etc.) It was a nice place, lots of slopes, but I found the slope-selection for beginner/intermediate to be not so great. There were a couple more intermediate that looked interesting, but you had to ride a pulley lift (like where you sort of sit on it, with your feet on the ground, and ski up the hill) up to them, and the lifts were along advanced courses, so if you fell off, you either have to walk up in your skis like a couple girls did or ski the advanced. I didn't want to risk that! It was pretty amazing all the same, and I'm glad I went!


Crazy lifts! They were really long, and really steep in parts- this one finishes by going up a cliff!


wow!


You might want to click on this one to see it bigger. Its a pasted-together panoramic of the view from the slope I skied a lot. This is the closest to getting an idea of what it looked like really being there- way too much to capture in a single photo.

A very long walk

So yesterday I went for a walk around my neighborhood. It was a gorgeous day and I wanted to check out a few things that I always pass in the colectivo ride to/from Viña. So I set off, with my camera, some chocolate, a rosary, and about 3 dollars. And I just took random pictures of random things. Like a graffiti’d sign that said (translated) “Don’t scratch. Thank you very much. We are the pirates.” Ooook. And I had a conversation with an old man on a bridge who wanted to know about where I was from and why I was here. And I checked out a couple of neat churches. And I ended up at the beach in Viña a little before sunset.

View from a dead-end street.


Our Lady of Lourdes church. The church is behind this area, what you see is a shrine/replica of Lourdes.


The Flower clock of Viña del Mar.


Self explanatory…


Love this one!


For more: http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2133063&l=0daf0&id=14218621

One thing I don’t understand here is prices. For example. Yesterday I bought sunscreen for skiing tomorrow, and it cost me roughly US$11!!! But today I bought snacks for tomorrow (small bag of chips, bag of cookies, 2 granola bars), a juice box, and 2 batteries all for $2. Weird.

Anyway, thats about it. Super-excited for skiing tomorrow! I hope I can get a decent nights sleep though- its been tough with this cold, and tomorrow we are meeting at 5:15am! If you really have time to waste, here's the website of the place we're going skiing. One of the links on the side is a photo gallery. http://www.vallenevado.com/?lang=eng

Ok, thats it for now!
Love, Katie

Hola!

I think its getting warmer here, but I've hardly left the house in the last 3 days so I don't know. I've been sick; don't worry though, I am already starting to feel better.

Today was the feast of the Assumption of Mary. That means, no classes. Yay for Catholic school!

I am finally starting to settle down in a routine here I think. That means homework, but hey, at least it gives me something to do right? Today was the last "feriada" for a while, so no more random days off. And I've been getting test schedules and final project information, which forces me to think about the fact that I am here for classes. I'm just glad that for once I decided to go ahead and take a really light schedule- five classes, but two of them are only 2-credit classes. The main goal here is to improve my Spanish, the secondary goal would be the classroom-learning. The literature class should keep me busy enough though- tons of reading, including Don Quijote which is over 1000 pages. That would be a lot even in English!

Anyway, I don't really have anything interesting or any new pictures. Just wanted to give a quick update.

On Saturday I am going skiing! In the Andes!

New Pics

Finally put some more pics on Facebook:

Boat trip, acensor, walking around Valpo, my house, and the museums:
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2131571&l=e9e69&id=14218621

Sand dunes and ocean sunset:
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2131578&l=13bf2&id=14218621

Familia!

Yay I finally have a family picture! More like I stole it, from Sarai, but all the same... This is my host mom on the left, my host sister Paola (she technically does not live here, but she probably spends the night here about half the time, and the baby stays here when she is at work), and my host niece, Amanda, 3 months old!

Trembol!

This morning I slept late because morning classes were cancelled for some professors meeting, and I was woken up by a loud noise. At first I thought someone had moved or dropped something really big downstairs, but then I realized that my bed had moved- as if one of the legs had partially snapped or something. I figured I dreamed it but then when I got up my host sister asked if I had felt the "trembol". We had an earthquake! (I guess trembol must mean minor earthquake, because the word is terremoto). Just a tiny shake though.

Other than that, a boring day, except that I finished Harry Potter 7. Spent all day reading pretty much. Then I had one class in the evening, which was pretty confusing- it was really abstract and the professor was talking about terminology and word roots- a little harder to grasp when you don't know all the synonyms and things in that language. But I made friends with a really nice French girl who I had met last week before we knew the class was cancelled last week. She is the only other non-Chileno in the class.

That is all.
Love, Katie

Monday

In case you want more details: http://maryanninchile.blogspot.com/ (hope thats ok, Maryann)
We had our meeting today, with all of the ISA students, the directors, the director from the US, the director of International students from the university, and a psychologist. Heard the details of what happened, talked about making sure we're here for each other and knowing that counseling is availible through the university, etc. Prayer service is tomorrow at 10. Michaela's dad will probably not be there, he was thinking of going to climb La Campana tomorrow to see what happened, and for closure I guess. She was cremated today, and I assume the family is flying back home tomorrow night or Wednesday morning.

My literature class today went really well- the professor seems really nice, the course material interesting, and I understood almost everything. Its going to be a LOT of reading though.

Love,
Katie

p.s. Hi Grandma and Grandpa!

Well, yesterday wasn't all bad...

In the afternoon, before we heard the news, we had a tour around part of Vina del Mar. First we went to this old house/palace I think from the early 1900s. It was the house of the family that founded Vina del Mar. Now its a museum, both a historical museum (a lot of the original furniture is still there) and an art museum. It was pretty cool. There was religious art, art by Chilean painters, lots of portraits of the family and of famous Chileans, etc.

Then we went to this old archeological museum, but it was closing in 5 minutes- our program people didn't realize that on Saturdays in the wintertime it closes early- so they wouldn't let us in. This was outside it however- its one of the actual statues from Easter Island. And the guy on the left was our tour guide, a history professor.


Then we went to Renaca, a bit north of Vina del Mar proper, and climbed the ConCon dunes. That was pretty awesome. Climbing them though was tough- resting about every 5 steps after we were about half way up.


The view off one side of the dunes:


A bunch of us bought these wooden sleds for a dollar and went sledding down the sand.


We were supposed to go to a beach nearby then, and then we were supposed to do some touring today but that all got cancelled when we got the news. I haven't heard much today, except some more of the details of what happened Friday evening and that her dad and stepmom and a brother are here now I think. Tomorrow we're all meeting at 3pm I think just to get together and talk, and it sounds like there will be a memorial service on Tuesday.

And finally, so I can end on a lighter note,
Things I am thankful to have here:
-la estufa (space heater)
-peach jelly
-Sarai (my roommate... we'd be totally lost and confused all the time without each other)
-wearing 2 or 3 sweaters at a time
-my host family, especially my host dad, he makes me laugh
-beautiful views
-sunny days (when we have them of course)
-my gloves
-the fireplace downstairs
-warm soup
-the pancakes we had for dinner
-the ladies I met at church
(notice how many have to do with being warm...)

Prayers Needed

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003821749_webdead04.html

She was in my group. Don't worry, I'm fine. I didn't really know her much, but its hard on everyone in our group just the same. Pray for her and her family and friends especially right now, and for all of us here, especially her roommate Scarlett and the other students who went hiking with them yesterday.

(Sort of) first day of classes

So you all might be wondering how my first classes went today.... well, they didn't. The first class, Origins of Christianity, we waited around for 20 or 25 minutes, and the professor never showed up. I guess thats somewhat typical. Especially since it was only a 2-credit class and we don't have class the next two Wednesdays (I think-something about no class in the mornings on the 8th, and then I know that the 15th is the feast of the Asuncion so no classes). So maybe he just decided to wait until after that to start things.

Then I just went to my Wednesday evening class, and I was waiting around talking with a girl from France and there were only two other people waiting too, 2 Chilean girls, and we finally asked some people in an office and they told us we were at the wrong room. So we went to the other room and got chairs and sat down and then figured out that it was a different art class. Finally we found a sign that said the class will begin August 8.

So thats my day. Mostly a waste of time, although while I was at the first class I stopped by the ISA office and printed out some things, so at least that trip wasn't wasted colectivo fare.