Dias 8 y 9, 5 y 6 del marzo

March 5, 2008
In trying to describe the City of Santiago over IM:
Well first off it’s obviously a city, but there aren’t that many tall buildings cause of the threat of earthquakes, so most buildings are under 5 stories. There are poor, grungy sections right next to national parks filled with green trees and playgrounds. The mountains are on two sides, the Andes on one and some others whose names escape me on the other. And from March to October there’s kind of a smog over the city which makes is hazy but the sun is still bright. It’s clearer by San Juaquin, away from the central part of the city.

March 6, 2008
Well I had my first two classes today. I’m still waiting on professors at Richmond to tell me whether I’ll get any Spanish credit for any of them but I know UR won’t give me any credit for Montanismo, but when I have this opportunity I wouldn’t want to pass it up!
My schedule will leave Mondays and Wednesdays open. Monday means good for travel, Wednesdays means time to study/read/possibly volunteer. The Chilean Ministry of Education has a program called English Opens Doors where foreign exchange students volunteer part time 4-16 hours a week to help teach English Chilean public schools in low-income areas. The students are taught English from grade 5 on but there aren’t that many qualified English teachers willing to teach there so they ask for volunteers.
Maybe on Wednesdays since I have time, if my schedule doesn’t change I can do that.
Classes started yesterday and it was so nice to meet people, especially other foreign students. Unfortunately the orientation was strictly academic and didn’t have any sort of social aspect to it, other than preliminary talks. Many students were so focused on classes, the atmosphere wasn’t great for anything beyond “hola, me llamo, de donde eres?” etc.
I’ve managed to meet a couple of really cool people and we’re all determined to enjoy our time here, learn, and make lots of friends. WE went out on the town last night an had a good time. It was my first time enjoying the nightlife of Santiago. One of the pluses is that here I’m legally allowed to go into any bar/club I want as the drinking age is 18. It’ll be tough this summer not being able to hang out in DC with K and Rah since I don’t turn 21 until this September.
Tomorrow I plan on bringing my camera to campus so I can post pictures here for everyone, but I might not bring my computer. I’ll probably end up updating this on a school computer or on Saturday, since tomorrow they’re having a fiesta for all the new students and foreign exchangers. I might get a little distracted being oh so popular and meeting people that I forget to update ;)
Send me an email whenever you want at jbizer3@gmail.com and I’ll typically respond the next day.