The Adventures Continue!
I enjoy blogging because I like to reflect on my experiences and share them with others. But, sometimes, I am afraid that my posts will be boring ... and then I assure myself that I am in Chile and everything here is different and interesting.
I will try to start right off from where my adventures in my last blog post ended!
Last Friday, Hannah, Sally, Gabriel, Nela, Claudio (Experiment Chile director), Gabriel Profe and I piled into a van for the 2 hour drive to Valparaíso and Viña del Mar for the day. We made a couple of stops on the way there. Our first stop was at a house in a small town that sold pastries. Chilean pastries are filled with manjar, a kind of caramelized condensed milk that pops up in many of Chile’s desserts. Although manjar is the traditional filling, crème pâtissière, chocolate cream and fruit jam are also used. We bought a bunch of types of the desserts to try them all! Muy rico. (Delicious)
(Not my picture) This is one of the traditional pastries with manjar in between.
Driving through the countryside, we learned that the houses with a white flag outside signifies that fresh bread is sold there and a red flag hanging outside of the house signifies meat being sold. It is more common to find houses that sell bread. We also stopped at a viewpoint where you could see the Pacific Ocean and the beautiful city of Valparaíso.
Another important thing about Chile: there are tons and tons of street dogs (perros de la calle). Santiago is known for them and quiltros is the Chilean slang name for them. They are all mostly friendly and will follow people around. I have not seen any unhealthy looking dogs or too skinny dogs because normally each neighborhood will have a street dog that they feed so then that dog always comes back to be fed.
La vista!
Once in Valparaíso, we took a boat that gave us a tour of the harbor.
After the boat ride, we walked through the town, went to a local fish restaurant, and went up one of the hills! While walking, we were warned by Los Carabineros (Chilean police officers) and local people that there were some thieves in the area stealing cameras and things from your bag. Here in Chile, there are lots of hills which all have funiculars going up them. The funiculars are all old and look very unstable yet they are very useful. We walked up the stairs on the hill and then rode the funicular down. People say that the women in Valparaíso have the best legs because of all the hill walking they do. :)
This is the top of a funicular. (above)
Valparaíso is covered in graffiti and all the houses are painted every color you can imagine making the city very colorful and bright. In my opinion, the graffiti is not bad since most of it is beautiful murals! (Like this wall.) Ever since the city was a small port town, the houses have been painted very colorfully because they would use the leftover paint from the boats and the boats had to be very bright colors as to be seen at sea. So now, they keep the tradition of painting the houses with bright colors.
After a filling lunch of fresh fish, we drove to Viña del Mar. This was my favorite city; the ocean, the people, and the scenery were spectacular.
The famous clock made out of flowers!
Every year, there is a big festival in Viña del Mar where all the famous Chilenos come and walk down the red carpet in elegant dresses with tons of paparazzi. Then, for about a week there are music concerts and shows that are all televised throughout the whole country. We were in the city the day before the beginning of the festival so I came home and my family watched the red carpet walk on T.V.
Last week my class and I also went to San Cristóbal hill in Santiago. We took a funicular up it. My family's house is on the side of this hill.
These are the two pools on top of the hill! On the weekend, Gabriel and I went to the pool in the second picture!
Alright, you're probably thinking, enough pictures already!
I went to my first Chilean BBQ this weekend! Barbeques are called "asados". It was at Hannah's house and with her family and mine. They have a very big house since it is technically two houses combined into one. They also have a pool in the courtyard. We stayed at their house until almost one in the morning: talking, playing ping pong, and eating. Asados consist of lots of grilled meat, potato salads, and of course, bread. While I am on the topic of food, Pisco Sour is a very common alcoholic drink among Chilenos. Also, Mote con huesillo is a very traditional drink to cool down in the heat (without alcohol). Although this IS a drink, it is a drink that is so dense it has to be served with a spoon. Mote con huesillo is sold in specialized carts found on every street corner. The sugary syrup base is complemented with a hearty helping of cooked husked wheat (mote) and at least one stewed dried peach (huesillo).
Valentine's Day in Chile consited of me giving my family Hershey's Kisses that I brought with me from the United States. There were also lots of vendors on the streets selling flowers, balloons, and big stuffed bears.
There are two main fútbol chileno teams, Colo Colo and La U (Universidad de Chile). It is a huge city rivalry and everybody is either supporting one or the other team. Sally, Gabriel, and I each bought a jersey one day. Gabriel roots for Colo Colo but Sally and I bought La U jerseys because of the colors and the design... we don't know as much about the teams as Gabriel does! But now, Sally and I are very loyal La U fans because we have a jersey. ;) When we wore the jerseys, people in the street would either support our shirts or tell us Colo Colo is better. Apparently Colo Colo has 29 National titles and their own stadium but other than that fact, go La U!!!
Whenever I go to a different country, I am always amazed by how soccer obsessed everyone is. It is like the craze for football in the United States but better because soccer rocks!
From my last post until now I have become a regular on the metro. Instead of going with my mom on the confusing bus system (at least, confusing to me), I use the metro. There is a station four blocks from our apartment. I have to transfer lines once but it only takes 25 minutes to get to the office of Experiment Chile. For the other exchange students, it takes them an hour and a half since they live in a suburb of the city, Maipu. Luckily, I have not experienced the metro during rush hour, at least not yet. I am the only student out of the five of us this year that will be living in Santiago. So I will still be using the metros and be a city girl! One time, we were all on the metro and it was surprisingly empty, so Sally took a nap on the seats and we also did some pull ups on the ceiling rails!
Today, Friday, was the last day of our Chile "boot camp". We presented our research projects to our families and we said good bye to each other. It is crazy how close the five of us students have become since we are all in this journey together. Sally and Gabriel will be living in Caldera, a port city in the desert 19 hours north by car from Santiago, so they are taking a plane. They will be attending the same school. Hannah is heading to Quillota and Nela to another town with a 'C' name... I can't remember it! Sally and I have already made plans to see each other back in the United States since she lives in Vermont and I have close family there. We also hope to go to New Zealand and Germany to see the rest of the students! (Pleeease, mom and dad?) I leave Recoleta, Santiago tomorrow to go to my next family in Peñalolén, Santiago. It is only a 20 minute drive from my apartment to my new family's house. Seeing that I hate goodbyes, it will be hard to say goodbye to my family tomorrow. They welcomed me into their home so kindly and I felt like I was a part of the family, I can only hope I feel the same way about my next families! My mamita gave me two pairs of earrings that were hers and then Javiera's and now mine. It was very thoughtful and they are gorgeous pieces of jewelery!
Mi mamita
Javi, my 22 year old sister, posted this picture on Instagram saying, "Now there are two blonds in the family...My little sister!"
Our family had a photo shoot at 12 at night when I was in my pajamas, haha!
I found a mistake in my last blog post when I said "Ciao!". In South America, they say "chao" instead of "ciao", which is Italian. So with that, chao for now!
Abrazos y besos,
Olivia