I meant to post this on Thursday before we left for the weekend, but before I knew it “we’re leaving in 2 hours” turned into half an hour, and I wasn’t able to post it, and haven’t had internet on my laptop until today. The weekend in Viña has been wonderful and relaxing, and I’ll write more about it in a few days because this post is already very long…
The past week or so has actually been quite busy—a lot busier than I thought being abroad would be, but great nonetheless. I’m leaving in an hour for a 3 day weekend with the host family at their beachside apartment in Viña del Mar, but I’ll do my best to write an update on my second week in Chile.
I actually came to Chile thinking I wouldn’t like the city of Santiago. I was excited about Chile, and all of the traveling I’d be able to do outside of Santiago, but I was pretty sure I wouldn’t care for the city very much. I’d heard about the smog, the unappealing architecture, and the personality-less buildings. And while a lot of that is true, I’m enjoying the city a lot more than I thought I would. We had the ‘Santiago Challenge’ last Friday, which was a scavenger hunt across Santiago planned by the Stanford center here. We were split up into groups of four, given money for the metro, and a page of clues (in both English and Spanish) leading us to interesting destinations across the city. It took us to the Presidential Palace, an extremely European part of the city, a contemporary art museum, and the central train station. It showed me places I never thought would be in Santiago, neighborhoods I never would have envisioned anywhere in South America, and beautiful architecture I think the guidebooks missed in characterizing the city. I’ll upload pictures after I get back for this weekend. One of my favorite places that I found during the challenge was an area called ‘Paris y Londres’. It’s a small neighborhood centered around the intersection of those two streets (Paris y Londres) and is the most beautiful part of Santiago I’ve seen. Although I’ve never really been to Europe, my friends said it was very reminiscent of a small town in France—cobblestone streets, Parisian architecture, a quieter feel. We even found the headquarters of the Socialist Party of Chile there (complete with splashes of red paint on the front of the building from some recent anti-socialists. I’m definitely going to spend many more days simply exploring the city—walking until I can’t any more, going through all the interesting inlets, plazas and buildings, and making sure I leave Santiago knowing the city as well as I can. The next place I really want to visit in Santiago is Cerro San Cristobal, a huge mountain in the middle of northern Santiago—it’s supposed to have an amazing view of Santiago and the Andes after the rain washes away the smog.
I spent the last weekend with Sam (the guy), Sam (the girl) and Zach at Viña del Mar (the same place I’m going this weekend). It’s a very nice beach town, free from the smog of Santiago, and with wonderful beaches. Still without any homework to do, we spent the two days relaxing by the beach with absolutely no cares on our minds. It was wonderful, and a feeling I haven’t felt in a very long time. We were totally separated from the Stanford hustle and bustle of endless work, and able to take a few days and do nothing but relax, eat good food, explore the city, and practice our Spanish with the locals. We stayed in a fun hostel while we were there. It was on tucked away in a neighborhood in the hills of Viña, near to the beach, and was made from a large family house into a hostel, with a family still living in the back, cooking us breakfast, etc. With the help of my Lonely Planet book, we found a great Italian food place hidden downtown, and spent hours there Saturday night eating the delicious food and even better dessert, talking to the owner, and petting the owner’s cat, who also hangs out in the restaurant. He talked to us about some hard things to understand in the Spanish language (mainly the fact that some words can have multiple meanings), and gave us some difficult words to try to pronounce (i.e. “jarra”). I’ll describe the town a bit more after this weekend, but I’m running low on time and I still have a bit more to write.
Classes really started this week, and I’m beginning to really appreciate the readings I’ve had in classes back at Stanford more. It’s not that the classes aren’t interesting, because they are, but I really miss reading in English. I’ve never appreciated my command and fluency in English before now. I still find it surprising sometimes when I hear Spanish spoken so perfectly and beautifully here. At first, I’m in awe that they were able to learn a language so well. I immediately think, since I’m learning Spanish, they must have learned it through books and classes too. I’m amazed at the Chilean’s fluency, and I always have to remind myself that they are native speakers. I’m not sure why I always feel that way, but I still have the Spanish language ingrained in me as a second language, so I am always so in awe of it spoken fluently, quickly, and perfectly.
On that note, I have begun to notice my Spanish improve. It’s not that I think my vocabulary has improved immensely (it has improved, though) or that I’m dreaming in it yet (although I think I do recall a few words here and there in Spanish). But I have noticed that my ear for it has improved immensely. Instead of listening to Spanish and inwardly translating it to English, I am gaining a better understanding of the language to the point where I no longer need to translate. The words have actual meanings to me other than their English translation, and I can read a text or listen to a lecture without having to think too often about English at all. It’s slower than my English reading, but similar in that less effort is needed to translate now. That is something that I’m excited about, and I know from this point forward my Spanish will improve drastically. That’s one of the reasons I’m taking advantage of the opportunity to spend this weekend with my host family instead of traveling with Stanford friends—I really want to make sure that I leave Chile having learned that most Spanish that I can. With Stanford students, it’s so easy and comfortable to speak in English, and being so inundated with Spanish everywhere else, speaking in English is so much more satisfying as I can really appreciate my fluency. But I need to force myself to speak as much Spanish as I can, so for the next 3 days, I will speak nothing but Spanish, read nothing but Spanish, and do my best to completely and fully immerse myself in it without a break for English.
Other than that, this week has been about me adjusting to life abroad while having homework. It’s going to be an easier term academically (except for all of the reading and writing I have to do in Spanish), but it sure will be hard to concentrate with weekend trips, afternoon outings, and such. So, I’ve been trying to get used to having to do homework and reading this week, and I’ve spent quite a bit of my off-time in the Stanford center this week trudging through academic papers written in Spanish…not fun. But I’m enjoying my 3 classes, as well as my internship and Spanish tutorial. They’re really helping me grasp the language and culture of Chile and Latin America, and I know I’ll enjoy them this quarter. It’s just a bit hard to concentrate on my studies down here—there’s an entire country at my doorstep, and I want to take advantage of all the traveling I’m able to do right now. After traveling to the beach last weekend, we had a lesson on Chilean music on Monday night, and our official welcome dinner at an amazing restaurant Tuesday night. Next Monday we’ll be meeting our language partners, who are local university students learning English who we’ll be hanging out with for the rest of the term here. For half of the conversation, we’ll speak in Spanish, and the other half in English. That way everyone wins, and I’m excited at the prospect of meeting some more Chileans. We’ll be traveling to Isla Negra next Friday to visit one of Pablo Neruda’s houses, and we’ll either stay there for the weekend or have another fun trip planned. Although there are still so many places I’d like to visit before I leave, so next weekend may very well lead me into Argentina, the Patagonia, or the desert. Stay tuned.
Wishing you a wonderful Día de Pascua de Resurección from Chile!
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