I think I’ve decided that occasionally this blog might have to be in Spanglish because I don’t know all the words I need and can’t quite express every idea I have in Spanish, but I find the latin lexicon rapidly creeping into my interactions with other students. So if I include a few spanish palabras o frases don’t be sorprendido.
After three and a half days in Santiago, the group travelled to Valparaiso. We left yesterday in the afternoon and arrived in Valparaiso and Viña del Mar just as the sun was setting. I was swept away by EVERYTHING. The buildings were so different than anything I’d seen. It’s like the Chileans have collected things from all over the world and made a city out of it. There are buildings that seem to be inspired by German architecture while some seem to be Asian or Victorian or French or Spanish or Latin American or from somewhere in the Tropics or the Old West or from Modern America. And no two buildings are exactly the same color or shape. Red, orange, yellow, blue, green, indigo, violet, magenta, cyan, chartreuse, fuchsia, tan, maroon, cerulean, goldenrod, and everything in between. The full spectrum can be found on the hillsides of Valparaiso. Bathed in the light of the setting sun, the whole spectacle shone even more vibrantly. Then there was the ocean. Golden. Sparkly. Awesome. We finally reached our destination at the Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso (PUCV) where we would meet our host families.
My host mother met me there and we took a taxi to my new home in Viña del Mar (which is just to the north of Valparaiso, but really still the same city). It was nothing short of astounding when I arrived. It is on the bottom (but not ground) floor of an apartment building and very large. What’s more, its just a stone’s throw from the ocean. There are many windows that face the ocean to the northwest. I can hear the sound of its waves and the whoosh of passing cars blending together as I type. While getting introduced to this new house I met part of the rest of my host family, while several others are out on vacation. We were eating dinner together with my host mother Ester, my host brother Luchito, his apolola (a Chilean term for girlfriend), Javiera, and their friend Marco. After we finished eating we went up to the rooftop terrace to look at the city. It was a breathtaking sight with the lights of the city all around us, but more surprising, we could see the stars overhead. I realized this was the first time I’d seen any of these stars being in the Southern Hemisphere and all (and in Santiago it was so smoggy and bright, you couldn’t really make any out).
This morning I got up in plenty of time so that mi madre chilena and I could take a collectivo (a cheap shared taxi that follows a certain, preset route) to PUCV. There the group of students reunited and took a Spanish placement exam to find out what level of classes we could take. I felt horrible about how it went afterward, knowing I’d done horribly. Everything on the test was things I know I’d heard of or sort of known at some point, but it was all very specific and tough to answer. Many of us commented afterward that our brains just shut down about halfway through, being too fatigued from the assault of Spanish grammar on our still adjusting minds. Later in the day there was a short tour of one of the city’s piers, a quick introduction to the tsunami evacuation route (yikes), and plenty of time for walking around, just soaking in the city. After that, some of us prepared for our Oral Exam where we knew we’d have to answer a few questions before receiving our test results so we quick looked up some obscure difficult verbs we might throw into the conversation to seem more proficient if we felt it was going badly (my favorite one we found was mojar meaning “to wet” or mojarse meaning “to wet oneself” and I imagined trying to work that into the interview at some point, but later decided it was probably ill-advised). When the time came, it was pretty simple. One professor from the college was there and talked to us one-on-one about our family and our home and basic stuff.
Then we got our results which were given to us in Spanish which, given how they present the information, it was an odd mix of ups and downs, made more confusing by the language barrier. I found I’d gotten a 38 on the test. Then I found out it wasn’t out of 100, which was a relief. Then, I found out it was out of 68, which wasn’t so great. But THEN they decided to reveal it wasn’t graded like a normal test (at least in The States) and getting 50% was about average, because they made it to be exceedingly difficult. So since I got a 55% that was actually pretty good and that I’d tested into advanced level classes, which is what I had been shooting for. Needless to say I came out of the little meeting, both confused and relieved...I think. I’m actually still not totally sure how to feel about it. Pretty good. I think. No lo se.
All in all, the past few days have been a crazy blur of more and more new things. New sights to see, new people to meet, and a new language to learn. But with all these new things there have been quite a few mistakes that we’ve made along the way. But that’s a topic for another day since I could go on and on about this, but I've already gone on long enough. Tambien, estoy cansado y necesito dormir. Pues, hasta luego!
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