Orientation

It all started on the 23 of July, where we, as in all of the incoming international students, first came together at Isabel Brown Caces (IBC) on Avenida Brasil at 9:00am. When my host father and I first arrived to IBC, everything was confusing, and I did not recognize any of the exchange students. After standing there with a dazed look on my face for many minutes, I finally caught on that I was supposed to stand in line and check in for orientation. I stood in line for a couple of minutes and got my name tag, then went to another room to get some information from my group leader, or as they call them at PUCV- monitors, Felipe Pino. We got a package of information telling us about our school ID information, and an agenda. After that, orientation had begun...

Day one of orientation went about like this: After we met our monitor, we got in our groups and talked while we waited for everyone to get to IBC. In my group there are eight people, four girls and four guys: Shivanni-a girl from UT, Michaela- a girl from Loyola in New Orleans, Kyra from Alaska, Jake from Colorado, Travis from North Carolina, Stephan from Connecticut, Jonathan from Kennesaw, and me. After everyone had arrived, all 200+ international students went into the auditorium and had a welcome session. There are people from 28 different countries studying at PUCV this semester, anywhere from China, to right near by Chile in Colombia. After the welcome session, we went to a big room where we sat with our groups and filled out some contact information. After that, we talked a little, and went up to the cafeteria and had a little snack break. After we got to ingest some delicious snacks and drinks, we went back to the big room and took the written portion of our placement exam. The exam was pretty intimidating after a summer of not really practicing any of my Spanish. We were given the whole hour between noon and 1:00pm, and I used most of the time given to me. When I was finished, I walked out pretty confident. We were given from 1:00pm until 3:00pm to go back to our host homes to grab some lunch, and I definitely took advantage of that break. Once I finished the exam, I waited for my sister, Rosio, to take me to get a Chilean phone at the Ripley mall here in Valpo. It's a nice mall, and it's different from the malls in the U.S.. In the mall, we successfully purchased me a Chilean cellphone that is very basic. It ended up only costing about 20 USD (The current exchange rate between USD to Chilean pesos (CLP) is 1USD=500CLP). After that, Rosio and I took the bus home to have a delicious lunch that my host mom made. At around 2:30pm, my host mom and I took the bus to PUCV's main building, Casa Central, which took nearly no time at all. From 3 until about 5:30, we took a tour of Casa Central, and had to attend a bunch of information sessions. Once it was 5:30, we were finished. My host mom came back to Casa Central to pick me up, and went home.

Day two of orientation went like this: I rode the bus by myself to Casa Central, like the mature adult that I am, at 10:00am. Once I got there, and talked to my monitor, I went with a group of students to the police station in order to register my student visa with the city of Valpo. On the way to the station, which was just two blocks away from the university, I was whistled at twice, and the French girl to my right was grabbed at. Once we arrived at the police station, we had to wait in line. So, we waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, I got to in there, and the policeman was very nice, and quoted the walking dead to me. It was an interesting experience to say the least. After I was finished registering my visa, I briskly walked back to the Casa Central so nobody would try to get my attention. Once I returned to Casa Central, my group was free until 3:00pm. At 3:00pm, when we returned, we had to take the oral portion of our placement exam. The oral portion was really just to see if we could communicate. The oral portion was an individual interview with an interviewer. My interviewer, Marcos Avilez, is the head of the whole International Relations portion of the university. He asked questions about where we were staying in Valpo and what our family is like, as well as questions about our home country/region. He also asked questions about why we were learning Spanish, and he seemed very impressed with both my Spanish and career choice. After our interview, we went to the "Salon de Honor" in order to get an idea of which classes we want to take, so that we can register for them on Friday.

After I studied the multiple lists and discussed my options with a few other international students, I have a general idea of what I want to take, and I will be able to narrow the list down to register for my classes. Once Friday comes and goes, classes will begin on Monday, July 29th, which means orientation will have been a success!

(Above is a picture of my name tag, the 13 represents my group number at orientation)