Independence Day "Week"

Hola a todos!  Wow, it has been an incredibly long time since my last (and only) post.  For everyone who was worried, I'm still alive and kickin' here in Vina del Mar, Chile, haha.  I've been here for almost two and a half months and experienced so many great things I don't even know where to start.  I remember during one of our first orientation activities that a coordinator gave us the wise and insightful advice to not  only experience and live here as foreigners or visitors, but to consider ourselves citizens of Vina del Mar.  Now that I  am completely settled in and comfortable, I am starting to feel less like an intercambio, and more like a citizen of this great place.

The academic culture here in my university, La Catolica, and Chile in general, is so different from anything that I have ever experienced in the United States.    One of the biggest differences here is the concept of punctuality.  It is not uncommon for students to stroll into class ten to thirty minutes late on a regular basis.  On top of that if a student feels inclined to leave class early they just get up a walk out.  This took a while for me to get used to and at times is a distraction to me in the classroom.  Also, there is no cap or limit on the amount of students in some classes.  In one of my favorite classes here, Greek Mythology, there are literally fifteen to twenty students who have to sit on the floor because the class is so full.  Most professors have no attendance policy, so at times in the same class there are a decent amount of empty seats.  The professors don't use text books in class because they are so expensive, so usually it is up to the students to obtain and make photocopies of the readings for the class.  The few tests and papers that I've had have gone well, but there are still certain classes that I still have no idea how I'm going to be evaluated in.  All in all, I am enjoying being challenged in class and improving my Spanish listening and communication skills in La Catolica.

The independence day of Chile is September 18th and they definitely take their celebrating seriously.  For that entire week classes were canceled so a few friends and I decided to rent a car and take a road trip to the northern part of Chile to a place called San Pedro de Atacama (San Pedro de Atacama).  We left the Thursday before the independence day "week."  The trip was incredible.  In car it took about 17 hours to get there so my companions and I got to know each other a lot better.  Atacama is the second driest place in the world so of course there were countless miles of desert.  What was so interesting though was seeing the contrast between the beach and the desert.  The beach and desert are literally joined with no barrier in between which doesn't happen in many places in the world.  While we were in Atacama one of my favorite activities that we did was sandboarding.  I'm not ashamed to admit I was a bit of a natural, haha.  We also visited some famous geysers that were in the area.  This part of the trip was fun, but since the altitude was so high I got a very serious case of altitude sickness that was not pleasant at all.  There were also natural hot springs there and we got the chance to take a swim in one of them. We had to leave at four in the AM to visit them when they are at their strongest point but even with the early departure and intense altitude sickness this was definitely a worthwhile part of the trip.  Another cool place that we went to was a place called Lake Chaxa.  This lake is in the middle of giant salt flat which is pretty cool.  What's even cooler is that this lake is inhabited by flamingos.  It was so random to drive through the desert then get to a salt flat with a lake full of flamingos.  This part of the trip was really neat. During the trip we stayed in hostels for a few nights and did some camping for the rest of the nights.  Overall, the trip was great and has been one of the best experiences that I've had here in Chile.

We got back from our trip on the 17th, the day before the major festivities started.  The majority of the people here go to big festivals called "ramadas" during the independence day celebrations.  However, some Chilean friends and I decided to go to a small, rural town called Olmue and stay there for a few days to celebrate.  This was a great time and I was glad to be able to spend some time away from my American friends.  Some of my Chilean friends even tried to teach us the national dance, La Queca, that is performed during the independence day weekend.  However, that didn't go over too well, it's a really tough dance ha.  This weekend was fun but when I returned home I was glad to be able to rest from the last exhausting week and a half.

All in all, I have definitely enjoyed the last two and a half months that I have spent living here in Chile.  The experiences that I've had have been amazing and I am definitely looking forward to the next two months...hopefully I'll post more often ha.  Chau!

Justin