Valparaíso

What a weekend! It all started Friday with my first day at my internship. I'm working with an organization called Programa Prevencion Comunitaria (Community Prevention Program) in a barrio called Cerro Navia. What a difference from my home in Las Condes. The neighborhood is so poor and underdeveloped, I really hate how stratified society is here. For my internship I am working with the kids in the neighborhood and teaching them about human rights. Each month the organization picks a human right that we teach, the kids then decided what kinds of activities they want to do to demonstrate or exercise that right. The kids are so adorable! They vary in age from 7-15 and are all incredibly sweet. Working with them is going to be a challenge for sure, but it's one that I am incredibly eager to take on. They all speak at the same time, run around when they are supposed to be sitting, and don't take direction very well. I feel like a mute and I forget all my spanish whenever I try to talk, but their smiles make me smile. I left my first day completely exhausted.

That night it was time to relax with dinner and wine. 8 of us were supposed to make dinner but that turned into chips and dip and ordering pizza. Unfortunately the pizza tasted like play-doh, literally though. So the food was kind of a bust, but I still had a really great time relaxing and staying in, it was a good break from the clubs and bars. I spent the night at Hannah's house with Lauren and Christina. We clearly would not all fit on the one bed. I think I got a solid 2 hours of sleep that night on that wood floor, but whatever it was just another hilarious memory.

Valpo

Graffiti everywhere! It was pretty too!

In the morning we all headed to the bus station to leave for Valparaiso. Only a 1.5 hour bus ride and we were there! I had heard so many wonderful things about Valpo, but I was somewhat underwhelmed. It was still a really fun trip, but I wasn't in love with the city. Seeing the poet Pablo Neruda's house was really cool and it was fun to roam the streets. Some people say that Valpo is  like a mini San Francisco, but I must say, I think my City by the Bay has a lot more charm.  One thing that Valparaiso is known for is their graffiti. It's actually good! These people are true artists, not gang members who tag walls all over the place. I'm always jealous of people who can create art, I just think it is the most awesome talent ever. The graffiti definitely gave the city a youthful feel. That night we went to a club called El Huevo, that's right it's called The Egg. The club was pretty awesome. It had multiple stories and each story had a different "theme". You went from reggaeton to techno (naturally everybody was fist pumping) to salsa to pop. It was really fun to just dance and be kinda crazy.

La Sebastiana, 1 of Pablo Neruda's 3 homes.

Lot's of colorful houses.

Chorillana

For lunch the next day we were on the search for J. Cruz, the birthplace of Chorillana. We found it after wandering for most of the morning. It was in a sketchy alley, naturally all the best places are holes in the wall. You would never guess that this tiny restaurant, tucked away in a corner, would be the creator of such deliciousness. After Chorillana I would say that the next most exciting thing that happened was my friend Lauren almost getting her backpack stolen... We were sitting the in bus station waiting to get our tickets validated and Lauren was watching multiple people's backpacks, big mistake. Some guy just ran by and snatched a backpack from right under Lauren's legs! She screamed real loud, which was good cause it got people's attention, "STOP YOU SHITHEAD, STOPP, STOPP!" I was standing in line and didn't realize that it was Lauren who had screamed, but our friend Daniel was quick to react. He took off running after the guy. It all happened to fast, and I was completely useless. Lauren and I walked outside and I saw Daniel walking back, WITH LAUREN'S BACKPACK! He caught up to the guy and the robber dropped it. We got lucky. It was definitely an experience, but after that I was ready to get out of Valpo. I'm glad I went and saw it, but it wasn't the best trip I've taken in my life.

Snow in Santiago

Emerged from the metro and this was my view!

In one week I went from wearing flip flops to seeing Santiago's first snow in years. It is safe to say that it is impossible to predict the weather here. City snow is something that I haven't experienced before and it's so pretty! All the roofs and patches of grass are dusted with a layer of snow and, even though I was freezing, it put a smile on my face. The sudden temperature drop did make things a little slippery though. It had been raining, so all the shallow puddles froze over and made parts of the sidewalk somewhat of a ice skating rink. At first it was fun to kind of slide in some places, until I got carried away and had to catch myself on phone pole while my umbrella crashed into a stop sign. Embarrassing.

I was totally warm

My school is still on strike and today being Thursday, apparently the official demonstration day, there was another big march. I finally participated! I feel like it's only right to embrace this part of Chilean culture while I'm here. They have been going on for about two months now and I wasn't going to let my time here pass without participating in at least one and apparently you can't get deported that easily, stupid rumors). SO MANY PEOPLE! I cannot get over how many people showed up. It was legit pouring and there were still thousands of people marching to support the movement. Students of all ages, grandmas, parents, little kids on their parents shoulders, it was a cool thing to experience, no one let the rain stop them. There was some great music too, bonus! The drums, oh the drums, I just love the beats they create. We marched down La Alameda, the main street through downtown, freezing our asses off until I couldn't take the cold/wet anymore and took the metro back home. School and classes are still really up and down. Each campus is experiencing different levels of protest. Campus Oriente for example, is in complete paro and it's difficult to even get onto the campus grounds. San Joaquin, where I have all my classes, is kind of all over the place, with some facultads protesting and others not. Basically all foreign students have to show up to classes and if the professor decides to come, then we have class.

The entrance to the Campus Oriente of La Catolica

For example, I had class in a cafeteria on Tuesday. It was...intimate. The professors are standing in solidarity with the students by not using the classrooms of the facultads that are en paro. If there is a plus side in all this, it's that I'm getting to know my professors! There is a lot of email communication and when we do have class, it's such a small number of students that it almost feels like one-on-one time with the prof. No one really knows what is going to happen with this entire situation and there is a lot of ambiguity involved for foreigners. This is a very momentous time for Chile and I'm pretty stoked to be experiencing it. I was really worried for a while about what was going to happen in terms of my credit and such, but now I'm just taking it day by day. Stressing about it, is not going to make the situation clearer. So screw it, I'm just gonna enjoy this experience for what it is, a once in a lifetime experience. After all, not many people can say "Yeah, I was studying in Chile when the students decided to reform the entire education system."

Even with all this going on, I am still finding time to explore more parts of the city. Parque Mahuida is a great escape from the city, even though it technically resides within the city limits. It's a great place for a hike to rise above the smog and get in touch with some nature. Not to mention it's gorgeous and green! It's cheap to gain entrance to the park (basically 50 cents) and easy to access via bus. Another discovery was the Bilbioteca Nacional (National Library). Right across the street from my friend Hannah's apartment sits this awesome and free attraction. To start the architecture is freaking gorgeous! Obsessed. They also have exposition type things that change every two months. When I went they had two different displays. One was on Pudahuel, a poorer neighborhood of Santiago, which gave the history of the region and had a ton of interesting photographs of the area. The other was a display of black and white portraits of famous Chileans done by Luis Poiro. Awesome! They had some really old school cameras on display too, loved it and it was free! There is still so much more to explore in this city and I'm thankful that I have so much time to discover it. 

Parque Mahuida, lookin up.

Biblioteca Nacional

Bustin Out the Flippy Floppies

Finally some pictures of my room!

The weather this week has been absolutely gorgeous! Breaking out the flip flops and t-shirts was so great. Unfortunately, the sun was only teasing and is going back into hiding this next week. I'm just finally glad that I'm beginning to see signs of the summer weather that I missed out on in California. On to more pressing news though, my school is basically going on strike.

My bed is to the left and the door is to the right.

This is the first time in a really long time that La Catolica is joining the protests. Each facultad, equilivent of "majors" in the states, voted to decide if they were going to be "en paro" or not. The facultads that vote in favor of the paro will not be holding class. I'm taking 2 poly sci and 1 spanish lit class, so naturally the political science and literature departments voted to go on strike. Wonderful! Basically what this means is all foreign students are screwed. Some of my professors are trying to find other locations to hold class and some are giving students all the materials to just study at home. Every week the facultads en paro will vote to either extend the paro or to begin holding classes. Maybe the government will actually listen when even the Catholic university has decided to mobilize. I fully support the efforts here to reform the education system and I want to be able to show my support, but I'm conflicted. I need to be able to go to school, I have credits on the line. Being here for a year means that this education business needs to be sorted out fairly soon. There is also the little tiny factor that if I or any other extranjero (foreigner) is caught participating in the marches we could be deported. That's right DEPORTED!

Yummy!!

On a positive note, whenever I come home after a stressful day of classes being canceled and running around campus to sort my life out, my host mom Gloria has wonderful meals prepared for me. Being the foodie that I am, I am super pumped to have a mom who is a fabulous cook! Her arabic heritage definitely adds to spice to the normally bland Chilean food. One of my favorite dishes so far: stuffed artichokes! I didn't know how one would stuff an artichoke, but it sure turned out delicious.

Protests!

Thursday is the official protest day. This means that today was quite eventful and slightly tumultuous. I'm not saying that all American students should protest, but the Chilean students have really proved that there is strength in numbers. Thousands, and I mean thousands, of students are banding together to protest the increasing cost of education. A ton of the public schools are "en paro" and are not holding class. It's not just the Universities though, yes the Universidad de Chile is on strike, but so is the colegio (middle school-high school) across the street from my house. It really is a movement that is spread over all levels of education.

So what does official protest day hold in store? Thousands of marching students, tear gas, water cannons, the equivalent of SWAT teams, and a couple other random ingredients. Up until today though, the marches through downtown have been given the O.K. by the government. But, the lack of government backing did not stop today's marchers. This unfortunately caused the events to turn violent more quickly than on previous occasions. As a student who knows many people participating in the marches, I know the majority of people are trying to be peaceful about it. There are just the idiots who go just looking for trouble, for a reason to create mayhem, act all though and rebel against the government. You idiots are why people are getting hurt!

Anyway, the use of tear gas is unfortunately really common. I had my first encounter today on the metro. No, my train did not get bombed with tear gas grenades. The streets above, however, did. Even though the metro is super far underground the gasses still found their way down there. I stepped off my train to transfer to another line and it hit me. Just taking a normal breath I could feel the burning in my throat. I, like everyone else around me, quickly covered my mouth with my scarf and tried to filter the contaminated air. You can walk with a scarf over your mouth, but not over your eyes. It wasn't terrible but I could definitely feel the sting in my eyes and they started tearing up. I was on my next train quickly enough and my experience was over. Aside from being uncomfortable for a while, I was totally fine, I just know that I don't ever want to have a real encounter with tear gas.

Even though today's protests turned violent, there is a movement growing to promote more peaceful means of protests. Flashmobs, sit ins, marathons, and cacerolazos are just some examples. Even though in the past cacerolazos have been associated with violent marches, tonight they are being employed on front porches across Santiago. Men, women, and children are busting out the pots, pans, and spoons to make as much noise as possible. It's kinda neat because sitting in my room, I can hear my neighbors clanging away being accompanied by the honking of cars. After today's protests the students have given the government 7 days to make a decision about the education budget, so I'll let you all know how that goes.

The collectivity of the students here is something I really admire. Students in the U.S. could never band together enough to actually get the government to listen. These Chileans are demanding the attention of the government and they will not go away until some of their goals are reached.

Let the Semester Begin

Real school has officially begun! It's only Wednesday, but it seems like so much has happened already. I have worked out a schedule so that I only have class on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Yup, that means a 4-day weekend every weekend! I am really pumped to be able to travel on weekends if I want to, that is, if my bank account can afford it. ATM fees are ridiculous and I hate them. 

Getting back to school, I'm actually really excited to have busy days again! The campus that I'm at (San Joaquin) is really cool. All the Chilean students talk about how "massive" San Joaquin is, but I would say it's relatively small compared to SB, or any other UC for that matter.Classes are going to be awesome. It's not that my classes seem easy, but the language barrier that I was worried about definitely is not a huge problem. The upper division Spanish classes that I took at Santa Barbara really helped me out. My biggest adjustment will probably be having to take notes on graph paper. For whatever reason notebooks here are just printed with graph paper, but if your lucky enough to find one with lined paper you'll have to pay more for it.  There are so many awesome classes that I want to take here, it was really hard to choose! Good thing I will have another semester here to take all the ones I couldn't fit in now. I did manage to pick four classes though that are sure to keep me busy: 

1. Political processes in Latin America

2. Chilean poetry!!

3. Latin America and the U.S. in the 20th century

4. Culture and Society in Latin America

(As a Global Studies major we have to pick a region of the world to specialize in, obviously mine is Latin America) I'm hoping to get an internship here as well with a local human rights group.Sadly, I am not playing any volleyball here (for the first time since I was a freshman in high school!) I love the sport and I am going to miss it, but this gives me more free time to try something new like Flamenco dancing! I signed up for a beginners class through the school and I could not be more stoked!