Views from Home

All right, well, given that I've mentioned somewhere in these posts (I think) that we live on the twenty-second floor of our apartment building, it's only fitting that I provide some imagery.  After all, being that high up has to afford a decent view, right?  Right.

We'll start with what I can see from my bedroom window, both during the day and at night (because the aesthetic is quite different between the two).

Here's kind of the back part of the city, away from the ocean and from the main streets.

This is one of a few soccer fields located all right next to each other, just above that loop in the road that you can see in the pictures above and below. 

A lot of overlap, but it gives a better shot of this long road that sees a lot of traffic.

And this is the fun part of the view.  Of course, the closer buildings have a much larger presence in what I actually see when I look out my window, but why would I want to make the picture more boring? 

Essentially the same shot as above, but at night.  Bear with me, I'm going back the way I came with these (though the soccer field doesn't get a nighttime shot). 

Here's that busy road (not so much at night, though) again. 

I believe I leaned out my window to take this one so that it would have a lot less overlap this time. 

Rainbows are usually worth pictures, and this big one was no exception.  You can see it better if you enlarge the picture (no, really?).

Now we move on to what you can see from our balcony:

So, the Pacific Ocean is at the top of the picture.  The other body of water is just some big pond thing that belongs to those buildings down there.  In the lower left part, obscured by the tall white building, there is a line of small fountains that sometimes run during the day. 

Here's a decent shot of the coast.

Here's a better view of the ocean and of the buildings between us and it. 

A lot of this overlaps with what you can see from my bedroom, which is a good indicator of the fact that our apartment occupies a corner. 

Much more of the city, though lamentably that building taking up the right portion of the picture obstructs a view of the real artery of Viña, Avenida Libertad ("Liberty Avenue"). 

As I did in the orientation post, I provide here a panoramic shot that covers the same ground as the above two photos.  Much more blurry, but gives a better sense of scope. 

One more view of the ocean and the beautiful sunset. 

Here's a portion of the big sidewalk that runs parallel to the beach.  On some stretches, there's a wooden boardwalk between the concrete one and the beach. 

Now the same stuff at night.  I really do find it cool how much the aesthetic changes at night. 

More city! 

Same building/ocean shot as a few pictures above...in the dark. 

And here's the coast at night.  So pretty.

So now you have an idea of what I get to see when I go to my window or out to our balcony for a view.  It's pretty awesome!  Well, that's it for this one, folks.

Food or: How I Learned to Stop Being Picky and Love the Opportunities

To those of you who get the terribly forced reference in the title of this post, congratulations.  To those of you who don't, go watch Dr. Strangelove.

But on a more serious note, there's not been nearly as dramatic a shift in my eating habits as the title implies.  I'm just trying to be funny and not succeeding.  What is true is that I've made it a point to eat everything that's been served to me here, so as to be a good, respectful, and polite host son.  Of course, just as there are things I could have gone without trying, there are things that have been intriguing, even delicious new courses to try.  I documented some of my meals across the spectrum during my first few weeks here, partially for the sake of documenting them and partially for the sake of proving to you, Mom and Dad, that I really am trying my best in this area.  As such, here's the photo dump:

Torta de choclo ("Chicken...casserole", I guess?  A direct translation doesn't work here.).  It consisted of chicken (duh), eggs, a corn-based top section, and I honestly can't remember what else.  This was from one of the first nights I was here.  I think I've had it one other time since.

I don't remember what this was called (it had a specific name), but it was good.  On the left is chamomile tea (a first for me, as I don't drink tea), and on the right is some sort of almond and chocolate, very yummy cake.

Nothing special about this.  I just find it amusing that this is all I've ever seen chocolate milk in at our place, as I typically associate this format with juice (you know what I'm talking about: Juicy Juice, Hi-C, etc.).  Even regular milk comes in cartons (though much larger, obviously, and without the straw hole).

I don't even really know what this is.  The soup seemed corn-based, but I'm honestly not sure.

Chicken and rice; hard to go wrong with that combo.

So, Mom and Dad, see those massive chunks of potato and sweet potato?  Yeah, I ate those.  For people who don't know this about me, I am NOT a fan of potatoes unless they are in the form of chips or something else small and crispy (like fries, or very crispy hash browns or tater tots); it's something I'd like to change, and it seems like my time here may very well do just that.

On the right, I have another seemingly corn-based soup.  It's kind of bland, frankly, but it's fine other than that.  Perhaps I should start using the salt I'm being given...  Also, that small plate?  That is a mound of shredded...red cabbage, I think it was?  It had an odd flavor; I definitely mixed it with other stuff.

Speaking of red cabbage, it returns here, cooked and in big chunks.  Those carrots are cooked as well.  However, both the carrots and the cabbage are cold.  Owing to the cabbage, food mixing happened again. 

A heaping mound of cold cooked vegetables.  There are even some green beans in here, ugh.

That egg was over-medium or over-easy, probably the latter.  I wouldn't know, since I always have eggs scrambled or in the form of an omelette.  I feel like it would have worked better in a sandwich than on top of soup, but that's just what I've become accustomed to in the States, I suppose.

This beauty was acquired after our day tour of Valparaiso.  I think it actually had two kinds of meat on there (the other being under the cheese), and there's some extra mozzarella sprinkled on there.  YUM. 

This was from our second day in Santiago.  I don't remember what kind of fish it was (in fact, I don't think the menu really specified).  I decided to get the filet with bones, only because it was cheaper.  My parents are probably grinning and shaking their heads right about now.

One of my greatest regrets, as far as food goes, is that I did NOT take a picture of one of the desserts I got here.  They're called sopaipillas, and here in Chile, they're traditionally made on really dreary, rainy days (which is exactly the kind of day I had them on).  Since I didn't take a picture, I'll steal one from the Internet.  Hopefully I'll have them again and can eventually replace it with a picture of my own.  In any case, they're flat, round pieces of fried dough (more or less), and they're heated in and served with some kind of sauce.  The sauce varies depending on who serves it; a bunch of people from my group got them that same day and reported a couple different sauces.  I got the very traditional chancaca sauce.  To use the Wikipedia entry's description of it (which is literally about two sentences), it's a "sweet sauce made of raw unrefined sugar crystallized with honey. It is often flavored with orange peel[.]"  I don't know if my sauce had any orange peel flavoring added in; if so, it was so ingrained in the overall flavor that I didn't notice.  Regardless, they are served hot and are DELICIOUS.  Here's the picture I stole (also from Wikipedia; go figure), which actually works really well because it shows regular sopaipillas and ones in steaming chancaca sauce in the back:

Well, that's it for this post!

The Family

Of course, it'd be silly of me not to post pictures of my host family!  So, here we go!

My two host brothers and myself.

Above are my two host brothers, Giorgio (23, left) and Renzo (20, right).  In fact, this picture was taken at Renzo's 20th birthday party.  As someone who doesn't drink alcohol, I finally got the chance to exercise all those "don't fall to peer pressure" lessons from my younger days.  It got rather raucous at times, but I stood my ground the whole time.  But enough about that.  Giorgio has been quite helpful; as I mentioned in an earlier post, he speaks English much better than I speak Spanish.  As such, if I'm really not getting something (or, more often, if I'm unable to communicate in Spanish what I want to convey) at home, he's able to field my concerns in English.  I've also gotten his perspective on some of the broader concepts in Chile, like history, education, etc.  I always feel a bit more at ease when he's at home.  Of course, this isn't to say that Renzo isn't kind or generous.  I just have that good of a host family.  ^_^  Next up is my host mom, Alicia.  I don't actually have a picture of her that I took, so I cheated and grabbed one from her Facebook profile:

She is very loving and absolutely adorable sometimes.  She's easily startled, at least by me, because I operate so quietly when I move around.  Basically, she'll be in the kitchen doing something, and then when she turns around, I'm suddenly there (because I just walked in quietly), and she jumps.  I feel bad, but it's still a little funny.

The last members of the apartment are the two woofs.  According to the info I got, they're Fox Terriers.  Either way, they're portly, spoiled (but still sweet), and PRECIOUS.  Here are a handful of pictures of them, because one or two just isn't enough!

This one's Charlie.  I personally think he's cuter.  He was adopted from an animal shelter in the States when my host mom was there one time.  I forgot the exact city, but it was one I knew.

Isn't his little doggy sweater cute?

This one's Coca.  She generally seems a bit more reserved, but put your face close to hers and she'll go for kisses.

If I leave my door open, this is generally what happens.

So there you have it!  Probably the only thing that makes me a bit remorseful is that my family is rather independent.  That is to say, each person just kinda does their own thing.  My two brothers are each going to their own universities, and my mom works both here in Viña and in Santiago.  Santiago's about an hour and a half commute both ways (kind of reminds me of you, Dad!), but she only has to make that trip once a week.  Family meals, even lunch (which is the big family meal here in Chile), rarely happen.  The lack of familial interaction does put a bit of a damper on my opportunities to practice my Spanish, given that I only have class with two Chileans total (in one class; the rest of the students in that class and all my other classes are other exchange students, largely other Saint John's/St. Ben's students).  Thankfully, the service project I'm in will be starting soon, so that should give me some opportunities.  Plus, the student my family hosted last year is back now and is going to live here indefinitely (largely because she'd gotten a Chilean boyfriend, incidentally).  She knows the best ways to increase opportunities, so I'll be seeking advice from her.  I've still got three months left, so I'm not too worried.  In any case, I'm rambling now.  On to the next post!

Familiar Brands

Here begins a series of smaller (text-wise, anyway) posts.  This first one is to show y'all that there is a good amount of Americanization that has occurred even here in this third world country (which it is, whether you're classifying it as such based on the Cold War-era demarcations or based on its status as an economically developing country).  Of course, there are a lot more brands than the few I'll be showing here, but many of those, particularly in the arenas of (fast) food/beverages and clothing, you'd probably expect to find almost anywhere anyway.

Doesn't look familiar, you say?  Well, guess who bought them out within the past few years?  Wal-Mart.  Their quest for world domination (Buy-N-Large from Wall-E, anyone?) marches on.

Just in case I had forgotten about working at Best Buy...

Guess which picture on this page is my favorite?  ;)

Though a tad obstructed by a palm tree, Cinemark is what I'm pointing out here.

Of course, this is to say nothing of all the Perry the Platypus shirts I've seen (people who don't know what Phineas and Ferb is have no idea what I'm talking about right now...well, it's a cartoon on the Disney Channel that has a decent number of older fans), along with merchandise featuring various other recognizable characters.  Oh, and, as is the case almost anywhere with some level of technology, Facebook and radio stations playing songs you'd hear on the radio back home.  And the Papa John's less than a block from my apartment building, which I actually haven't gone to yet.  In fact, I've avoided essentially all fast-food chains while I've been here (for whatever that's worth).  Anyway, that's it for this one!

Day 1: Orientation

So, the big day had arrived: orientation.  We all met up at the same place we had been dropped off only eight or nine hours earlier, in front of Museo Fonck (which, for those of you who don't speak Spanish, is just "Fonck Museum"...I'll be adding translations in quotation marks, when necessary, from here on out).  At this point, we became aware that there were, in fact, other exchange students studying at UAI (Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, or "University of Adolfo Ibañez").  Over time, I've found that they come from places ranging from other U.S. states (the most common) and Canada to Denmark and Germany.  Anyway, we took a big bus up to school, and I was greeted with a daytime view of the city I had thus far only seen at night.  It was pretty cool, because you can see not only a lot of the city but also back into the hills for a ways from there.

Of course, I now realize that I haven't mentioned the big thing you can see from my apartment and from my school: the Pacific Ocean.  Yes, this is a coastal city, though not really a port city (that honor goes to its neighbor, Valparaiso).  As such, even though we came down here in what is currently winter, highs have still consistently reached ~60º Fahrenheit (give or take about 5º).  On the flip side, interior heating isn't really a thing here in Chile, so when the lows dip down into the 40s, you feel that indoors as well.  Thankfully, the lack of wind indoors and the fact that we live on the 22nd floor of our apartment building helps keep things pretty decent, and I made sure to bring long pajamas and slippers anyway.

But I'm getting off track.  To give you an idea of what you can see from my school, here are some pictures:

A bit of the parking lot, with a view of the city (and a bit of the ocean, barely visible) past it.

A few palms on the campus grounds, with the city beyond (hey, the sun came out!).

It almost looks like it drops off past that ledge, doesn't it?  I did that on purpose.  ;)

A more unobstructed view from campus (right part).

Left part of the above.

Essentially the two pictures above in panoramic view (lower quality, but broader scope).

There is a horse-racing track at the bottom of the big hill we're on.  I haven't heard squat about it, and based on the horses here versus in the States (that's for another post), perhaps there's a reason why no one has mentioned it.

So there was the view of the stuff around the campus, but then there was all the stuff on campus.  This is a very modern facility, and the architecture will make this excessively obvious.  Have a look at both the outside and inside of this complex.  First the outside:

Coming down the path to the school from the parking lot.

Those stairs lead up to the soccer fields.

Going back up that same walkway (from the first picture) to the parking lot.

Then the inside:

Yeah.  Figure THAT one out.

My friend Brian and I joked that, if Inception ever got a sequel, it could pull architectural inspiration from this building.

Exchange students, both from our group and not, enjoying a little social with a few Chilean "buddies" (students who take on a few exchange students as their "wards", so to speak, giving them advice and helping them integrate).

Our group is shown the gym/exercise area.

The school's library.

So, now that I've overloaded you with pictures, the story continues.  We were initially ferried into a room in which we were given our planners and introduced to the international affairs staff of the university.

Wanna guess how many times this has actually been used?  The same number as my planner from St. John's: 0.  If there's something I just can't remember well enough on my own, I jot it down in my notebook.

Afterward, we were taken on a tour of the campus, which provided me with the opportunity to take most of the shots of the outside that you saw above.  This was followed by a short social (also pictured above), then another presentation.  This one was about general safety tips and guidelines for living in the area, particularly as gringos.  We were also told not to be shy about discussing any issues with our host families (which I didn't pay much attention to, as my host family is awesome...if a little independent).  We found out that class locations are posted on an electronic bulletin board (read: TV on a stream of some sort; turned out to actually be useful, as one of my classes changed rooms indefinitely a couple weeks ago).  One particular point did concern me a bit:

I sincerely hope I never lay eyes on a single one of these.

Thankfully, we live high up in a well-maintained, newer apartment building with very few hideaway places to speak of (not to mention cool weather, which most spiders I can think of aren't particularly fond of), so I'm not too concerned about getting badly poisoned.  Still...

After all of the day's important activities were over, we all gathered outside to chat, to take in the sights without being on the move, and, of course, to take group photos.  Here are a couple:

Here are all the girls (including our director, Marietta, on the far right), minus Martha and Kelsey (the latter of which came a day later than the rest of us).

Here are eight of the guys (the two Mikes are off playing hacky sack with Martha), plus Jaime, Carlos, and Jorge (the last one being the really tall guy behind us all).

Subsequently, we returned to Museo Fonck to be picked up by our host families and to do any other necessary errands to get fully situated in Chile.  I decided to have my picture taken with the big Moai statue (think Easter Island, which is actually owned/governed by Chile) outside the museum while I was there:

In case the mental picture didn't suffice.

The museum's entrance, as viewed from the side with some Moai statue thrown in for fun.

One more thing we learned that day is that stray dogs are very common here.  Very.  I couldn't even begin to count the number I've seen between here, Valparaiso, and Santiago.

Here's a couple of 'em lounging around.

It's very hard not to pet them (and, on one or two isolated occasions when I knew I'd be able to wash my hands shortly thereafter, I have), but a desire to remain healthy is pretty compelling in its own right.

Well, that does it for this post!  There will definitely be more to come, though, so stay tuned!