Orientation: Where I Learned Earthquakes Are Terrifying

Two posts in one day. This will never happen again. But I just saw that what I posted wasn't everything I had written! I don't know how to use this.

We had two days of orientation (Wednesday and Thursday) from 9:30am-6:30pm. We had a lot of info thrown at us so it was tiring, but a lot of us can already feel our Spanish improving which is pretty great. Other than that it was a lot of talking about Chilean custom, culture, and "chilenismos" which are words/phrases that are specific to Chile. That was all really helpful but four hours of it each day got a little tiring. ALSO, I have now developed an extreme fear of earthquakes. Apparently, there are "little trembles" in Chile at least once a week, and a little tremble here is anything that's a 5 or below on the Richter scale. A 5 is an earthquake in most places. And any time there's a tremble, the buildings sway a little bit though we were assured that they would never fall. Everyone has told us that if it happens we have to stay calm, but Maddie and I both know that if the ground starts to "tremble" we're going to run around and freak out. At least we're honest. My fave part of orientation was definitely the scavenger hunt we did this morning in small groups. We walked on the main street by the IES center (Ave. Providencia) between two metro stations and looked around for various things. Our group learned that the bakery Castaño is like Chile's Starbucks in that it is on every single corner. We also learned that you can get gelato in almost any store on Ave. Providencia.

Plaza de Andres XXI

Maddie and Claire at Los Leones

I walk to and from the IES center every morning, which is amazing since the metro twice a day would cost a ton. Our scavenger hunt was through part of my walk so it was nice to look at all the stores leisurely instead of while I'm hurrying to class. Santiago's beautiful, but the smog really starts to get to you if you're outside for too long.

View of my walk to the center

The IES center. It's a lot bigger than it looks!

We start Spanish class tomorrow and the seminar that goes with our clinical observation on Monday. We were all hoping the work load wasn't going to be ridiculous but based on the syllabi we got today we're going to have a fair amount to do. Luckily, we only have classes on Friday three or four times the whole time we're here and most of our weekends are either completely free or full of traveling! Speaking of, we're going to Valparaiso on Saturday for a day trip and it's supposed to be beautiful since it's on the coast...plus it'll be exciting to see the "other" Valparaiso!

I Officially Have a New Favorite TV Show

The day I got to Santiago was extremely low-key and exactly what I needed: I got to my home away from home after what felt like the longest day ever and mi madre anfitriona (host mom) was amazing enough to let me rest and unpack instead of having plans of exploring the city. Don't get me wrong: exploring Santiago is on the top of my list of things to do, but after a ten-hour flight with no sleep the last thing I wanted to do was...well, move around at all. There are two other students living here, one is an IES student from South Carolina, Lydia, and one is a Chilean student who goes to high school in Santiago, Stanley. Lydia is really nice and she walked to and from the IES center with me on the first day, which was really helpful. She's been here since February so she knows her way around. Stanley (who wants to be a singer and was the runner-up on the X Factor Chile) is mostly just hilarious. He's very sweet and naive and loves going to the gym "para tonificar" (to tone up) because he thinks it'll give him a better chance at catching the attention of someone who can make him famous. My room is wonderful, it's big and it has a huge window, even though the view is nothing special. I have my own bathroom, also great because if I had to share with Stanley I would cry.

We also have a kitty named Kitty McLaren and Neva's son's dog, Calí who's 18 years old and beautiful.

I. Love. My. Madre Anfitriona. Neva is old, tiny, sweet, and she makes all my meals. Even though I was told that the food here would be pretty bad, I've only had great experiences so far. I think it's because the continuous onslaught of mayonnaise that everyone's warned me about hasn't started yet. I have to say that my most favorite thing we've eaten so far is the dessert we had on Wednesday after la cena (dinner). Layers of different flavors of ice cream separated by condensed milk called postre helado...the portion was the perfect size considering how sweet the dessert was and apparently condensed milk is the most amazing thing to put on ice cream ever. 

Postre helado

My little family and I have already fallen into a nighttime routine, which I love. During dinner, we watch a telenovela (soap opera) called Pobre Rico, which is full of good-looking people doing ridiculous things. Honestly, the story wasn't that difficult to catch on to...basically, a rich boy and a poor boy switch positions and hilarity ensues between their dysfunctional families and crazy girlfriends. I love it. 

I'm not going to promise that I'll update this very often...buuuut I'm gonna try really hard!