Valparaiso to Valparaíso
Well, kind of. I am attending Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaiso, but I am living with a host family in the neighboring city of Viña del Mar in the greater Valparaíso region. Today is my third day here and I’ll try to keep it short, because I ramble.
But first…
Spanish Word of the Day
Gringo - a non-derogatory term used to refer to US citizens. Mostly because the term “American” confusingly does not represent everyone from Alaska to Argentina who lives in the North and South American continents and the word “Estadounidense” (meaning of USA nationality) is too long. Folklore says it was generated when the US invaded Mexico wearing green uniforms and the people shouted at them “Green Go Home” (UrbanDictionary).
Departure
I was driven to the airport by my mom, auntie, and Michael. As with New Zealand, I was a crying mess. No surprise there. I boarded my two hour flight to New York and fell asleep for the duration. Upon arrival at JFK (where I would spend the following eight hours) I received a text from my good friend Morgan, whom I met in New Zealand, wishing me luck on my trip to Chile. I told her I was at JFK and she informed me that she, too, would be at JFK for a Global Entry interview. We were able to have a surprise meet-up over lunch at an airport diner. I found it fitting that she (whom I flew back from New Zealand to LAX with) was the last person I saw from that trip, as well as the last I saw from home before this trip.
The 11-ish hour flight left that evening. The flight was just as nice as most international flights that I’ve taken. I flew LAN, which is the leading airline in Latin America. I scored a seat the first row behind first class, so there was plenty of foot room and room to get out from the window seat, as well as a wall to rest my feet. I got my first taste of how easily I would have it in Chile (not at all) on this flight, as the flight attendant coming around asking about which meal I’d like did not speak any English (which, mind you, was a flight departing the United States). I settled with carne y arroz (meat and rice), as I had no idea what he was saying the other was. Turns out that one looked and smelled 10 times better. Oh well…
Pick-Up
Upon landing in Santiago, I met two girls at customs that I found out were also studying with ISEP in Valparaíso. We found our van driver, who gathered another seven students (ten of us in all) and shoved all of us (and our luggage for five months) into a tiny van to make the 1.5 hour drive to Valparaiso, where our host families would pick us up on the front steps of our university’s main building. The landscape is much less green than I’d assumed and was very similar to the dry, desert-y landscape of Southern California.
I don’t know Spanish
I cannot stress this enough. I didn’t know what people were saying to me on the airplane and I don’t know what people are saying to me now. Do I think I’ve improved in the last three days? Actually, I do. Little by little. But this was extremely overwhelming upon meeting my host family, who thought that I was more knowledgeable of my Spanish and whom I thought were more knowledgeable of their English. I was greeted lovingly by Edith, her 21-year-old son, Maxi, as well as his two friends, Valentina and Tommy. Valentina and Tommy were both decently fluent in English, which helped for a few hours, but they live in Santiago and left that night.
Anyway, they greeted me in Spanish and soon asked “you don’t understand,” to which I responded “no.” We loaded my things into the car and took-off to a famous funicular (cablecar) that took us to the top of a hill overlooking the city and water below. We came home, settled in, napped, had dinner, etc.
The past two days have begun my orientation at PUCV where I’ve had the opportunity to intermix with dozens of international students (whom are the only students around at the moment) and gather lots of information about my new home and upcoming studies. We took a Spanish placement test yesterday. I knew I was screwed as soon as we sat down and the instructor only used Spanish. The test’s instructions were all in Spanish. There was not a single word of English in the entire packet. (I thought this was a beginners program!!!!) So, I answered all 40 of the multiple choice questions, all eight of the reading comprehension questions over a one-page article, and wrote two sentences of what should have been a one-page response on the article. I scored 1.0 out of 7.0 (4.0 is the lowest you can go and still pass, to put that into perspective). I had my post-test interview today where the professor told me “I think it’s necessary that you take some Spanish classes while you’re here…” Which is perfect, because that was actually the only plan that I had!
Last Thoughts
I need to wrap this up. But all in all, I’ve had a lot of confusion. The host family and I are figuring out how to interact very well, despite the language barriers. We’ve had a few frustrating moments regarding Chilean phone plans and ATMs, no big deal. Edith is so accommodating and has figured out that the only thing I like to drink is water (no coffee or tea!) so she now keeps a pitcher in the fridge for me. She makes my bed every day. I labeled household items around my room with post-it notes stating their Spanish titles. The toilet paper at PUCV is on the wall outside of the stalls and you have to take it with you into the stall. There are homeless dogs literally everywhere (did I mention that I stepped in “caca” as soon as I stepped out of the car on my first day?? I was given a congratulatory “Welcome to Chile!” by my host family immediately after). There is a main road in Viña called “von Schroeders”. HBO is the only channel I can find in English (which is the best one, honestly). The balcony view from our condo is fantaaaaastic! My bedroom is the size of a closet.
I think that wraps up my first three days pretty well. It is a big challenge, but it is a beautiful city. I am living and learning.
The view from my balcony