staying around Santiago

I spent this past weekend hanging out around Santiago and at home with my family. I visited the National Museum of Natural History, which is the largest in South America, a a small museum of technology, and Quinta Normal which is one of the largest parks here in Santiago. Local Chilean university students joined us and it was fun just to get to speak with locals that were the same age as us. It rained for the first time since I’ve been here and the weather has surprisingly turned colder. My family and I decided to go eat lunch together at a nearby restaurant called Shopdog which is very similar to HardRock Cafes since they too displayed antique objects. This is the place to get the best hotdogs although the hotdogs here are topped with tons of guacamole, chopped tomatoes, and mayonnaise! It sounds gross but it is surprisingly pretty good after you eat a couple =)

hanging out at the grandma's apartment for some tea .. here's the whole family .. Sandra, Pato, Esteban, Jorge, Grandma, and Cecilia. yes, that would be guacamole (palta) on everything! 

My Chilean family .. Pato, Sandra, Esteban, and Cecilia 

Concepcion

Last weekend I flew down south to Concepcion with the other 33 students here on the program thanks to the Bings who sponsored our weekend trip. It was nice to escape the busy life here in Santiago and enjoy an afternoon hiking in the hills, trekking up to a waterfall, and visiting several lakes that are home to gorgeous black neck swans. Of course we did the touristy thing visiting the first hydroelectric plant in Chile, the University of Concepcion, and the famous coal mines in the next town called Lota. A huge art faire took place right next to our hotel so we spent the afternoon walking around the stands and watching local artists make their crafts. Some of the guys satisfied their urge to play soccer by finally buying a ball and we started a game at the nearby park. We were lucky to catch an International Jazz festival at night which took place at the city’s largest ampitheatre. For someone who typically isn’t a huge fan of jazz, I really enjoyed the concert since South American jazz is different than American jazz. As for weather, the south is much colder and it was the first time we had to put on pants and zip up our sweaters!

what spanish class teaches me

18% tax here. wow. luckily its built into most everything. i learned today in spanish class that to ride a horse or drive a carriage (which you do see around santiago on the streets), the same license is required as that of a car. crazy.

we hiked up to a small waterfall near the city of Lota which is famous for its coal mines  

all the micro buses are mercedez! 

me and regan in Concepcion in the south of chile 

dancing in chile

i have finally found a dance studio here in chile. i took class last week for the first time and it was AWESOME. mariano, the teacher, is great and teaches a great 2 hour jazz class. its a small hole-in-the-wall studio, but classes are pretty small (12 people) and it just feels so great to be back taking classes again. the studio is close to my house .. about 5 blocks .. and mariano is actually a friend of the director here at the stanford center. i also met a chilean girl named joyce who wants to be dancer so will hopefully go to either europe or the US after high school to audition for some companies. she even speaks fluent english because her mom is from england!

friday excursions

every friday, we take excursions throughout the city with our spanish teachers. last week, we visited Patronato, which is the garment district where you can get anything from luggage to clothing. it is also the most diverse area of santiago filled with immigrants from all different countries. Plaza de Armas was another quick trip we took with the director of our center where the most famous cathedral of Santiago is located.

in the center of Plaza de Armas in front of the cathedral of Santiago 

me and jenny(my spanish teacher) in the garment district 

beautiful sunset from La Serena. you can even see the main cathedral in the next city over .. 

the only statue to be taken off easter island. this is small one but there are bigger ones still on the island. 

dave, kiyomi, and me on the beach in La Serena 

La Serena

For the first weekend out of Santiago, I traveled with 6 other students to the small city of La Serena in the north of chile. Traveling within chile is very easy so after a 6 hour busride, we arrived on the coast where it was much cooler despite the fact that northern chile is supposed to be hotter since it is located closer to the desert. La Serena is a small city so we were able to see most of the attractions including the center area called Plaza de Armas, the main mercado, some of the 29 cathedrals, and the archeology museum. The highlight was getting to see the only statue that has been taken off easter island! I really want to go to easter island, but it's expensive and there isn't much time. Of course we headed to the beach and spent the day playing soccer on the sand, swimming in the warm water, and watching the beautiful sunset. Since the days are so much longer here, its great to have more time in the day and for example stay out on the beach until 8 pm. La Serena is a much quieter city but it was nice to just get out of the busy and crowded Santiago for a little.

Welcome Bing Dinner

Tonight was the welcome Bing dinner and at the end of the quarter, there will be one more farewell Bing dinner. For anyone who does not know who the Bing family is, they are large endorsers of Stanford and especially the abroad programs. They understand that college kids don't have a lot of money so they provide two dinners and two weekend trips in the foreign countries that students would probably not be able to afford on their own. Next weekend is the first trip and we are all flying down to Concepcion in the south of chile for the long weekend. Then, later in february we're going to the coast for one of the biggest festivals of the year, Vina del Mar.

The Bing dinner was great and was held at Akarana which was actually a New Zealand restaurant. The food was amazing and the dessert was even better. Before hand, I arrived early so a couple of friends and I went to hang out in the Ritz Carlton which was right next to the restaurant. haha. we didn't stay long cause we didn't feel like getting kicked out but it was fun anyways.

Bing welcome dinner .. gotta love the bings! 

some chile education

Some interesting things that I’ve learned about Chile:
1. I wondered why the bus drivers drive SO crazily and especially in the evening. Apparently, the bus drivers do not have a fixed pay, but are paid by the number of tickets they sell daily. That explains why they basically race each other to get to the next stop.
2. it is very politically divided here so when literally EVERYONE goes to the beach for vacation during the summer months, they vacation at places where Chileans with the same political view vacation.
3. divorce wasn’t even possible until a few months ago. Before that, basically everyone built in a loophole to the system by intentionally making an error on their marriage certificate so that if they later decided they wanted a divorce, they could annul their marriage claiming the certificate had an error and was not valid.
4. if you are registered to vote, you HAVE to vote or else you are fined. That’s why they have 97% turnout and their polls are even segregated by gender.
5. alcohol sales are prohibited on election day.

here is one of the electronic music flatbed trucks that paraded around the city during Love Parade 

first weekend in santiago

i've only been here for little over a week, but it feels so much longer. so far, the trip has been great and i'm beginning to learn the city by walking or using the metro and the micros (local buses). my host family is great and my chilean mom is very talkative. i hang out with the kids everyday since they don't have school and talk with friends of the family during evening walks in the nearby park. the apartment is close to downtown so it is located very conveniently and i can walk just about everywhere.

its summer here so the weather is nice if not HOT. i found out the hole in the ozone layer is right above chile, so people here are extra careful about going out in the sun. i started classes last week and i can say that its definitely going to be a challenge getting through classes all in spanish. many students are native speaking, but hopefully i'll be fine and my fluidity will improve by the end of the trip. oh and the spanish spoken here is CRAZY. it is called castellano and its so fast. chileans combine their words and cut off the ends. to make it worse, there are tons of chilenismos (words only used in chile).

since it was the first weekend here in chile, of course i went out with friends to see the nightlife. everything is pushed back here by several hours in comparison with the US. on a typical day, the sun goes down around 9 so families eat dinner around 9 or 10 and the youth go out around 12 only to return about 5 or 6! my mom was wondering why i came home so early when i got back at 3:30 this weekend =) on friday night, i hung out with the other students who are here on the trip with me in a section of the city called sucia lined with restaurantes, bars, and clubs. on friday, we took a trip to cerro de santa lucia where santiago was founded and later became an observatory. on saturday, it was the long expected Love Parade. usually, this festival is hosted in europe, but this year it came to santiago. its a HUGE event of electronic music and 300,000 people were expected to come out. tons of flatbed trucks paraded around downtown while people danced in the streets in between being hosed down by the firefighters!

we climbed to the top and here is a view of santiago. can you see all of the smog in the background? 

today was the first friday outting with our spanish teachers. this is cerro de santa lucia.

here's my little 7 year old chilean brother .. isnt he cute? he always comes and hangs out with me in my room =) 

first day here in santiago

hola from santiago! i finally arrived =) i met up with brian and regan, two friends from stanford, in atlanta and then we headed down on a wonderful 9 hour flight to chile where there were actually two other standford students on the same flight. the view from the plane was amazing .. once we got closer to stantiago, the mountains came into view and were beautiful with the snow covered tops. once grounded, we had a little trouble paying the entrance tax, but it was more comical than anything else. next it was off to the hotel and somehow we managed to cram all three of us plus baggage into one really small and tiny cab. its interesting to see how far womens rights are still lagging behind here in south america as we experienced with the cab driver. after a good nap, we headed downtown to walk around for a bit. it appears that everything is closed on sundays, but people are still out and walking around. many kids swim in the fountains while others just walk around the parks which are situated actually between the two sides of the road. we had lunch and it was my first time eating a hotdog topped with guacamole, tomates, and mayonaise. it was pretty good id have to say! its nice to get into warm weather and away from the rain, but its actually pretty hot here. right now its 7:45, but outside it looks like its 4 so it stays light for a long time. the accent is hard for me to understand, but hopefully ill be able to pick it up within the next few weeks. tomorrow its off to the host family in the morning and hopefully ill get to spend the rest of the day with them. oh, and contrary to what i thought, chile is not in the same time zone as east coast. its actually i believe 5 hours ahead of california.

on my last night my aunt got me my favorite chocolate cake .. how cute =)