In Chile, Send Chocolate

Today I had my first real food craving in Chile.

I was sitting at the bus stop in Valparaiso when I started to crave some candy.  I went to a small store, but all they had were biscuits or wafers covered in chocolate.  Now, there's nothing wrong with buttery goodness covered in chocolate, but the staple diet of Chile consists of bread and butter... needless to say, I've become pretty tired of this in only the week that I've been here.  What I really, really wanted was just a pack of M&M's... just a handful would've done the trick.  I bought a chocolate covered cookie and a pack of Chilean jelly beans, but neither tasted very good, and after I finished them I was totally unsatisfied.  I am now going on a mission for the next couple of days to find some good American candy-- as stupid or vain as this may sound, I don't know if I can handle the next six months without some M&M's or very bittersweet chocolate a couple of times per week.

The food in Chile isn't bad, but it isn't good either.  Meat, potatoes, biscuits, and mayonnaise are the 4 staple food groups.  I would have thought that the country that exports a large majority of vegetables to the US would've had more to offer as far as cheap vegetables go, but this isn't the case (probably because it's winter).  This weekend I went on an impromptu trip to Valparaiso with about 10 other people from my program, and we had to eat out for 3 of the meals that we had technically paid for at our host houses back in Santiago.  Last night I split a dinner with a girl in my program, and we were expecting some sort of potato dish with chicken... instead, we got a plate that was honestly the size of my torso, filled up with a mountain of undercooked french fries, chicken, sausage, and onions.  And on the side?  Mayonnaise.  Mmmmmm.... greasy food covered in mayonnaise.  Sounds like my kind of meal.  And today, when I ordered a chicken sandwich, I got yet another giant plate of food, this time with an enormous biscuit filled with about 4 mashed avocados with chicken, tomato, and... mayonnaise.  There was enough mayo on that sandwich to have lasted me my entire time in Chile... needless to say I will now be asking for my meals "sin mayonesa".

On a lighter note, my trip to Valparaiso was filled with new friends, exploring, and lots of street art.  Here are a few of my favorites:

There are, of course, more, but Blogspot won't allow me to post more than 5 at a time at the internet at my host house is terribly slow.  Anyway, so I stayed in Valparaiso for 2 days and 1 night in an international hostel.  We walked around the city (which is known as the "cultural capital of Chile") and visited one of Pablo Neruda's houses.  It was super fun and I can't wait to go back!  It was also nice to get out of Santiago to get away from the smog and the cold.

Oh, before I go, if you feel like sending me a letter (or something else... hint hint) my address is:

Megan Libby

c/o U de California

PUC Campus Oriente

Jaime Guzmán 3300

Nuñoa

Santiago, Chile

That's all for now!  My language classes start tomorrow so I'm off to bed to wake up bright and early to finish my visa process beforehand! :)

Algarrobo

The biggest pool in the world in Algarrobo, Chile.  Some people were braver than I was and actually jumped in!
(above): the biggest pool in the world in Algarrobo, Chile

This past week I went to Algarrobo, Chile, for an orientation for my program.  The program is for all UC campuses, so there are about 53 of us here.  We stayed at a little hotel on the beach.  At first I was a little hesitant... we are in the middle of winter right now, so why would we be going to the beach?  It was SO nice at the beach, though... it felt about 80 degrees Fahrenheit.  It was also a good opportunity to meet everyone from my program.  Most of the students are from UCSB, but all of the UC campuses are represented.  

We had a lot of free time in Algarrobo, so we went walking along the beach a lot since it was so nice out.  It was so beautiful, and there was this giant hotel (above) along the beach... it looked familiar, but I didn't know why.  Then, as my friend was talking to some random Chilean woman for directions, she asked him if he'd seen "la piscina mas grande del mundo."  Yup... Algarrobo is home to the biggest pool in the world.  We walked down to the pool several times, and the last time we climbed over the fence to take pictures of the pool.  I can't even describe how huge it is!  You can rent kayaks and paddle boats, and the security guard had to take a boat over to us to tell us to leave haha (and when we saw him get in the boat, we knew we still had a few minutes because it would take so long to get to the other side!).  Some people jumped in, but I didn't bring my swimsuit... and the pool isn't heated in the winter time.  

We stayed in Algarrobo for 2 nights, and on the last day we watched the Chile-Spain soccer game.  Chile lost 2-1, but there was still a lot of celebration that night because Chile will still move on to play Brazil on Monday.  Our program director told us that if Chile HAD won, though, there would be riots in the streets, because so many people would be celebrating... also, I've heard many times that tear gas is used pretty regularly here, so it would've definitely been used.  I'm definitely looking forward to that! (not really, but it will be interesting to tell people once I'm back in the US).

Today I went out and bought myself a prepaid phone for local calls.  Tomorrow I'm off to Valparaiso with some people from my program, and then Monday is a holiday and the Chile-Brazil game.  Apparently Brazil is one of the best teams, so Chile isn't expected to win, but my host brother promised that he would run up and down our street naked if Chile won.  As apathetic as I usually am about sports, I am cheering for Chile now!

CHI CHI CHI, LE LE LE... VIVA CHILE! :)

Let's see... where should I begin?  I've only been in Santiago for about 30 hours, but so much has already happened.

I arrived in Santiago, Chile at 5:30 am yesterday morning after traveling for about 24 hours.  I had a layover in both LAX and Lima, Peru, which weren't so bad.  My flight from LAX to Peru was brutal, though... I left LA at 1:20 and didn't get to Lima until 8 hours later.  When I got to Santiago, I took a cab from the airport to the program's meeting place. I was planning on waiting around to meet up with a few people from my program to split a cab, but as I was waiting this lady at the taxi stand started yelling at me to get a cab so I had to hire my own (I had to pay $34! So much for a budget!). Anyway, so it's 5:30 am, I haven't slept at all, and the driver is talking to me in Spanish asking me where I'm going. I tell him, but then I'm like, what am I going to do in Chile at this university with all of my stuff at 6 am? My program didn't start til 12. So I was asking the driver, and he's like, "well, nothing's really open, so you can always go sit at McDonalds" and then he starts laughing, and I'm like great, it's my first day here and I'm already going to get killed for being an idiot and sitting alone by myself in the dark because nothing is open.  So we end up at the University and he just drops me off and I started freaking out, but then this guy from UCSC came out of no where and had already had an arrangement set up where he dropped his bags off at security. So luckily I was able to do the same, and then we walked around the city for like an hour but nothing was open except for gas stations and McDonalds.

Because my program started at noon, hardly anyone showed up until about 11 am.  I was sitting in the main hall of Pontifical University of Chile with a few other students when this Chilean guy comes out of no where with a flag on his back and invited us to watch the Chile-Switzerland game at 10 am in the cafeteria.  We obliged and at 10 we went to the cafeteria to watch the game.  The room was packed and we had to stand in the back, but it didn't really matter because we wouldn't have been able to see anyway, because any time Chile had the ball all of the students would be standing up, screaming, and chanting.  Chile ended up winning 1-0... it was so intense when Chile scored that 1 point!  People were screaming, hugging each other, crying... it was cool to see all of them so into the game.  Chileans were celebrating the win all day afterward... there was honking in the streets, people were throwing paper, and when I went for a walk in the park afterward with 3 other UC students and our host madres, there was this big group of Chileans drinking and giving everyone high-fives, and one of the madres was like, "hay mas vino en el sangre que chileno en el sangre", so I guess it's pretty typical haha.

I got my host family after the soccer game.  I'm living in the Providencia neighborhood in Santiago with a woman named Gladys and her 4 kids and 2 grandkids.  It's nice because there are 3 other UC students on the block, and Gladys is really good friends with all of their host madres.  So I've been spending a lot of time with them, like yesterday we all went for a walk around the neighborhood to get our bus passes and to exchange money, and then afterward we all went over to one madre's house and had a big dinner.  There were about 15 of us at this tiny table, and the madres had prepared a feast!  We ate biscuits with egg salad, tuna salad, hearts of palm, and chicken, and there were also all sorts of sweet breads and wines.  It was interesting because the madres were telling us stories about other foreign students they'd had before who had said really stupid things that they thought had meant something else... I have learned to look up ANYTHING I say because in Chile almost anything can be twisted into a sexual innuendo haha.  For instance (this is the "cleanest" example I can think of haha), "estoy embarazada" means "I'm pregnant", but many of them said that they'd had students who'd said that to mean that they were embarrassed.  I'm sure many of them were even more embarrassed when they found out the actual meaning!  After dinner, I came home and passed out because I'd barely slept in the past few days.

The city of Santiago itself is nothing special... it's very smoggy and busy.  It reminds me of a combination of the Mission District of San Francisco and Honolulu.  I'm excited to start my language classes, too, because I can communicate on a very basic level with people, but I definitely can't have conversations with them.  Tomorrow my program is off to the beach to have orientation!  And then I'm back in Santiago in time for a 3-day weekend.

I will write more later, but for now I'm going to go!  Ciao!