Thursday, July 26, 2007

Thursday, July 26, 2007

First of all, I’m starting to think that Global Warming isn’t that bad after all. Today was a BEAUTIFUL spring day in sunny Santiago. By 2 pm, I’d striped off my many many layers to just my tank top and soaked up the long due sun. But only 4 hours later I was back to shivering despite the 3 layers plus coat, gloves, and scarf. The magnificent few hours of warmth and sun were just enough to make me realize what I’m missing right now. This morning we had an orientation at Universidad Catolica. Everything seems pretty nice and the campus we were at is beautiful. The most exciting part is that the Student Ministry group gave a short presentation about their exchange student program. They have parties, service events, trips around Santiago, and outside the city. They even have what seem to be bible study/prayer groups and “language partners”. I signed up to be involved and I think this is going to be a great way to find community and Chilean friends. The youth minister and students seemed excited and friendly and I’m really looking forward to being on the participant side of the activities as opposed to the leader/planning side.Between orientation and our last class we had a few hours to kill. Six of us girls went to Cerro Santa Lucia, a beautiful castle on a huge hill smack in the middle of the city. It’s like a city park and you can walk all the way up to the top. From there you can get a 360 view of the city. Absolutely incredible. Class was a last chance gathering to discuss any loose ends and make some final comments about what we’ve learned. Our tutor, Gabriel, is an Engineer turned music composer and professor. He is studying Chilean Culture right now so he has some fascinating perspectives and insights. Some of my favorites: 1) Chile is an adolescent: Unsure of its identity, full of dichotomies, sometimes hostile, but absolutely full of potential. 2) Chilean men are really just boys. Chilean woman are really just mothers. Chilean women like their men like boys because then they can treat them like children, therefore fulfilling their motherly role. (this possibly extends to most of Latin America.) After class, Nick and I checked out the Bernardo O’Higgins tomb and museum. O’Higgins was one of the most important liberators of South American during the Wars of Independence. The only more important liberator was Simon Bolivar. We than went to an exhibit in the museum underneath the plaza in front of La Moneda, Chile’s capital building. The exhibit had all kinds of art from the different regions of Chile. It wasn’t until I was about ¾ through the exhibit that I noticed that all the plaques were written in both Spanish and English.

Thursday evening was chill. I went to mass with Olga then ate dinner. She cooked some kind of strange seafood in an omelet. I liked (or at least I didn’t hate) the first few bites but I just couldn’t eat it. We then watched Alquien Te Mira. Now I’m going to sleep because I had a late night last night and another early morning tomorrow. We are going to Valpariaso after we get our Chilean Cedulas, where I’m hoping to see Eric Couper (my friend from Tulane that is studying there for the summer)! Buenos Suenos! Sweet Dreams!