To order a pizza or not to order a pizza?

Ordering a pizza in the U.S. and the UK is a simple task. But I would have to say that ordering a pizza in Chile is one of the most complicated things ever. 

Last night, Ruby, Otisa and I had a girl's night at Ruby's place because Ruby had never seen Pitch Perfect. It started off with us meeting Otisa at the metro station and us grabbing some wine and snacks at the grocery store, and then heading back to Ruby's so we could order a pizza. We decided to go with a local pizza place that serves "American" style pizza. We wrote up what we were going to say to the pizza guy, and continued with trying to call. We searched for numbers and tried different numbers, but nothing would work. So we went and asked for some help from Ruby's house mates and we finally got it to work! Success. So we called the local pizza company, and I was the one that decided to brave up and order our pizza. They answered, and I nervously started my script. As soon as I started speaking, the guy knew I was not a native speaker. As the conversation went on, I was getting more nervous and my Spanish was only getting worse at this point. The guy on the other end was speaking quite rapidly, as Chileans do, but he was being so patient with me. We were going back and forth for a good while until finally he quite clearly said to me, "ehh Do you speak English?" He said that clear enough through the phone that even Otisa and Ruby heard, and the three of us began laughing quite boisterously. The guy on the other end heard us laughing and began laughing with us, seeming a little bit confused at the time. After calming down a bit, I finally said yes. He confirmed our order in English, and we had the order correct! We ordered our pizza successfully, even though we had a difficult time throughout the process. The guy was so patient with me, allowing me to struggle through my Spanish, and helped me successfully order our pizza. My goal by the end of these five months is to order a pizza without somebody asking me if I speak English half way through our conversation. Needless to say, although slightly embarrassing, it was one of the funniest moments I have encountered on this trip. 

Santiago Day Three

After a wonderful day and night spent in Santiago, we decided to sleep in a little bit more because we were not in a great rush on our last day in Santiago. We were back down to seven because Eric went back home the night before, so the seven of us wandered the streets of Santiago to head to Villa Grimaldi. We started off on the metro, and then took a bus to get to Villa Grimaldi, which is a park that was used as a torture camp during the dictatorship of Pinochet. We showed up, and took a look around of the park, which has nothing more than memorials and post markings about its past. The park is done up to be more people friendly, which helped lighten the mood when reading about the torture camp. That didn't take more than an hour for us to walk around and explore, so we decided to take a bus back towards the center of Santiago. Once we got back to the center, we decided to grab a bite to eat at this food shack that had delicious, authentic Chilean food. It was so cheap and so filling!

After our nice lunch, we headed to a bakery near by to get some cheesecake and empanadas, and headed to Cerro Santa Lucia. At Santa Lucia, we got to see traditional Chilean dancing, and the dancers even went into the crowds and danced with the audience. While watching them dance, some of the performers came and grabbed a few of us from my group to dance with. After we were finished dancing, we headed to the top of the Cerro to see the view of the city. At the top, it was so breathtaking! You could see almost the whole city, on a clear day, the whole city. It was about 5:30, so we decided to head to Cerro San Cristobal to watch the sunset. Little did we know that it was going to take us a little longer to get there, and we missed the sunset from the top of Cerro San Cristobal. However, we did get to see a llama dressed up with a blanket and a hat. After that, we decided to grab a drink before we headed back to the hostel for the night. Otisa and I had pisco sours, and Ruby had a piscola. Once we finished our drinks, we went to the metro where Parker split off from us to head back to Valpo, and we headed back to the hostel. While heading back to the hostel, this is where the night took a turn. We got robbed right outside our hostel, but everything turned out way better than anyone would ever expect. We were shaken up and full of adrenaline, and tried to make the best out of the rest of our night before we headed home the next morning.

The trip overall was a wonderful experience, and I couldn't have picked a lovelier group to travel with. Although there were a couple bumps in the road, we made the best of every moment and had an absolute blast.

Santiago Day Two

Friday morning, August 16, my friends and I grudgingly woke up from the restless night's sleep to get ready for our day. After getting ready, we decided to go see what there cafés there were along the streets of Barrio Brasil. Right across from our grubby little hostel was a delicious little bakery. Since we were all quite ravenous, we decided to make that our choice. So we walk across the street and stumble into the bakery where the smells of different breads and pasteries begin to flood our noses. After a bit of looking around the glass displays, we finally decide what we want. I ordered a "Berlin Grande con crema", which is like this huge spherical pastery filled to the rim of cream and dusted with powdered sugar. Sounds expensive right? Wrong. The pastry was very inexpensive, and absolutely rich in flavor.

After breakfast, we decided to go about our day and head do La Chascona. La Chascona is the beautiful Santiago house of Pablo Neruda, one of three houses Neruda has in Chile (the other two are in Valpo and Isla Negra). We took a tour of the house and got to see things that were in the house originally when he lived there. After the tour of the house, we left and met Michaela so we could explore more of the city. It was right around lunch time, so the eight of us (Michaela, Otisa, Ruby, Eric, Allison, Dillon, Parker) walked to Patio Bellavista. Patio Bellavista is a very gringo area of Santiago. It is this large patio shopping area with some of the most beautiful things one can buy. We stuck around there for awhile, window shopping and getting souvenir ideas, and then we went to our next stop. The next place we went to was the "Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos" The museum is about the history of Chile during the dictatorship of Pinochet, talking about the desaparecidos and the labor camps. It has four levels to the museum of different facts and exhibits. The museum was so interesting and sobering, it was so worthwhile.

We left the museum, and decided to head to the open air market that we were at yesterday to eat some more delicious, traditional Chilean/Peruvian food. We sat there for a little while, and decided to head back to our hostel and enjoy our time together.

(this is the pastry that I had, Berlin Grande con crema)

Santiago Day One

Besides last night's post, I haven't really blogged in a week or so. But that is because there hasn't really been anything worth talking about. In all fairness though, the week before last I was fighting a cold and this past week I was busy with trying to do all of my homework. The funny thing about Americans is that everything we do is always "the best" or "the worst" and there is never really anything in between. But there is so much gray area that really is interesting for being so bland. Which is why, even in the midst of a foreign country, my friends and I decided to take advantage of our long weekend. 

Santiago for a weekend trip was definitely a great trip. I went with a group of friends that I've made here, and going with them was the best idea ever. Our last day of classes for the week was Wednesday, so we all packed up and headed out to Santiago Thursday morning. 

The morning started of very stressful. Since Thursday was a holiday, pretty much everything was closed. I walked down to the ascensor at 7:30 to find out that it was closed. So I began to get a little nervous as I find another way to get down to the metro station to meet Ruby. I walk up to walk down, and down to walk up, but finally I get to the metro station. Yet again, the metro station is closed. Out of all days I that I need it to be opened, today was that day. The metro was closed until 9, but we needed to be in Viña before 9 to get on the bus for Santiago. So at this point, we are a little peeved, but we decided to take a bus. We get on the bus and everything is going alright. The bus stops at one of the last places before heading to Viña when we see one of the people of our group, Eric, and notice he isn't getting on the bus. We begin to yell at him, "Eric, Eric! Get on the bus!" phew. That was close! The bus gets moving, and all systems are go. As time is moving rapidly, our bus driver decides that today would be a good day to not drive crazy. We are checking our watches to see that we have about 15 minutes left until we have to be on the bus, but we aren't that close to the bus station yet. We finally decide to get out and walk the rest of the way. Well, jog the rest of the way. We turn the corner, and we see the bus stop! It's just shy of 9 o'clock, but we made it. We grab our tickets and meet the rest of the group (Dillon, Parker, Otisa, and Allison) outside at the terminal to get on the bus. Loaded up and ready to go, we buckle up in our seats on our double-decker Tur Bus and wait to head out. The clock struck 9, and it is finally time! The seven of us are so excited to get to Santiago that we are too enthused to even try to sleep on the two hour journey inland. 

Seeing the poorer parts of the country, to beautiful landscapes, to the snowcapped Andes, we finally arrive to Santiago. Once at the  bus station, we get off and grab our gear and head to the metro station so we can check into our hostel. The metro of Santiago is just like any other normal metro system around the world, so we find it easy to maneuver to the area closest to our hostel. It's about 11:30 when we arrive to the hostel, knowing that the staff is expecting us at 12. We get to what we hope is the door. At this point we aren't too confident because of the lack of identification that this is even a hostel. We ring the doorbell for 723 Avenida Brasil, which is the address for the hostel, but there is no answer. We wait a few minutes, and ring it again. There is still no answer. We pull up the information for the hostel to make a call, and try calling. We tried calling from four different phones, and there was no answer. After almost 30 minutes have gone by, we decided to ring the doorbell one more time. Finally! Someone answered the door...but it wasn't the hostel staff? These random people staying the hostel answered the door for us and had to go wake up the staff so that we could check in. By the time we get in the door, it's noon. The hostel staff was still asleep at noon! Already quite annoyed at the lack of professionalism, the staff finally saunters down to the desk and tells us that we have to pay up front. What? Now, that is a little unheard of. We all begin to shuffle around our pockets to pull out our money and pay her. After that is all settled, we set our bags down and head out to see the city. 

We began heading towards the Main Cathedral of Santiago, but first we stopped by an open air market for some traditional Chilean/Peruvian food. We socialized and ate different things, and had Inca Kola. Afterwards, we went to the Mercado Central where we walked through to see what they had, taking pictures of every interesting thing we see. Shortly after the market, we walk to la Plaza de Armas and visit the Cathedral of Santiago there. When we showed up, it was right around the time for mass to begin. Fortunately for my friends that stayed to partake in the ceremony, the arch bishop was in town to lead it. After mass, we got ice cream, and watched as some people danced the night away. It was getting to be dinner time, so we decided to head back to the hostel for the night. We went to go find a place to grab dinner, but nothing seemed to be open because of the holiday. Instead, we decided to order a pizza. I never realized how difficult it is to order a pizza until I came here. After going through 3 or 4 different pizza establishments, we finally got a hold of Pizza Hut and ordered 2 delicious cheese pizzas. When we finished, we just enjoyed each other's company until we were too tired to fight it.

Even though the day had started off on the wrong foot, the end made every little struggle worth it. 

I Got Robbed

Cuidado! Don't try this at home, folks. This weekend, from Thursday to Sunday, I spent my time in Santiago. Now, the entire weekend was absolutely amazing... except for one tiny little moment. Unfortunately I tremble as I write this, but that tiny little moment is the reason for my title: I was robbed. Before everyone begins to freak out, let me tell my story of how it happened:

My group of friends and I had just gotten back from a day of exploring Santiago, and were ready to get in our pajamas and relax. We were about to enter our atrocious hostel when Otisa and Michaela notice a man checking me out. This man happened to be an middle-aged man, probably in his mid forties to early fifties. We didn't really think anything of it, because being blatantly checked out in public is the norm here in Chile. However, there was one thing that man wanted- my U.S. cellphone. As the man began to walk by us, he decided to take the opportunity of us not paying attention and take off with my phone. As he began to take my phone, I realized what was happening and began to panic. As the phone was slipping out my pocket, I began to cry out, "My phone!" and started chasing after him down the street. I started to run and run, but my little legs couldn't catch up. Little did I know, I wasn't the only one running. My entire group had begun sprinting after this dirty thief, trying to catch up to him before he got away. I began screaming at him and the innocent bystanders at the top of my lungs, "Stop him, stop him!" but my yelling had worked in a different way. As he started to pull away from me, Dillon caught up to him and got in front of him so he had no way to escape. I showed up shortly after, and did what nobody should ever do in this sort of situation. I ran right up to my thief, screaming and spitting with anger; the fury is foaming out of me. When I arrived in front of him, my brain took over, knowing exactly what to say and how to say it. At this point, Dillon, hissing with anger, had taken a step back, not sure what the man took. This man was mine to handle, but Dillon was close by if anything were to happen. I scream at him, with so many profanities that I will not dare to mention, "Give me back my phone! Give it to me." The man, so shocked, spits back, "What? What do you want? Where is it, huh? Where is it?" At this point, I am too enraged to deal his asinine remarks and just spit back, "My phone. It's in your hand." I spit out more profanities to him, and he hesitantly puts his hand out towards me. I rip my phone out of his hand, and Dillon pulls me away. I spit at him more profanities, this time they are harder to choke out, as Dillon and I walk back to the rest of the group. We first catch up to Ruby, who was screaming at the man at the top of her lungs, and we continue to walk back to the group. We continue walking, and my body begins to tremble as the shock of what just happened is finally catching up to me. By the time we get back to the rest of the group, which now consisted of Michaela, Otisa, Allison and two bystanders of this scene we had created, I was sobbing. I felt violated. In order to take my phone from me, the man had to be close enough to touch me.

When we made it back to the hostel, we all were just in shock of what just happened. We tried to make sense of it, but I still am struggling to wrap my brain around what happened not so long ago. Six gringos sprinting down Avenida Brasil in the dark after a middle-aged man for justice? No wonder that man was so willing to give me back what he had taken. He must have been freaked out. We are a lucky group of kids to not only get back what was taken, but to walk away safely from an opportunist that left the situation probably as scared as we were.  Even though we were proactive, chasing after a thief is not something anybody should ever do. Nobody got physically hurt, but any situation like that is a traumatic experience for all involved. I have a brave group of friends and I am so thankful to have them. Unfortunately, my post doesn't give the story justice. But there is no explanation that is vivid enough to fully capture what the 6 of us went through last night. It is so surreal that this happened just 24 hours prior. And it is unfortunate that we had to experience it, but we have learned that even careful isn't careful enough. From here on, we just need to be more aware of our surroundings, and know that nobody is safe from this sort of problem. We all think that it won't happen to us. But we're so wrong. This experience won't hinder us, but provide us with a better understanding of the culture we have interrupted and help us have a safe, but still wonderful, time.

Assumptions

Assumptions are a dangerous thing to play around with. Whether it ends up being true or not, making assumptions is like playing with fire. I had no idea how prominent they were until I came to Chile. People look at me funny because of my blonde hair and fair skin, and assume that I am just another dumb American. The frustrating thing about this assumption is that everyone that approaches me, or that I talk to that is from Chile, just assumes I don't know Spanish. The sad thing about it is, it has happened to me on multiple occasions. I don't mind people mustering up the courage to say hello to me in English. What I get frustrated with is when I go to a restaurant or the supermarket, the staff talks to me in English.

The first instance I really noticed it was when I was with a group of friends out for a night on the town and a young lady, that worked for a restaurant near by, approached us. At first, she talked to Eric and he said he didn't speak a lot of Spanish. When I heard this, I butted in to help. As soon as I spoke to her in Spanish, she switched to English, trying to explain everything to me like I didn't understand her the first time. I guess it was bad on my part to think that a vertical head nod was the universal sign for 'yes.' After she tried to speak to me in English, I looked at Ruby, who came up and decided to talk to this woman. Ruby quickly responded in Spanish, and the girl looked at her with big eyes saying, "Hablas español?" and Ruby responded with, "Si. todo de este grupo hablan español." The woman looked back at me, surprised how offended I looked that she didn't let me try to speak Spanish.

The second instance that I really noticed was when Ruby and I were in the supermarket buying some things for her new apartment. I went up to a young lady behind a counter with a huge smile and said "Hola. Tienes espejos grandes?" This girl looked at me and then looked at her coworker, and said "You can speak English to her." Which I then explained to them that no, I do in fact speak Spanish.

It isn't that they are trying to make me mad, they are just trying to make things "easier" for me. It is just getting to the point, though, where I want to pretend that I don't speak English, but something less common in Chile, like Swedish or Norwegian. I am here to better my understanding on the Spanish language. I am not here to be mothered by every living human being.

The moral to this story: Don't assume someone doesn't speak your language. Just give them a chance to try.

Friends

Making friends from all over the world has probably been one of my most favorite things about this trip. I have met people as close as Kennesaw, Georgia and North Carolina, to people from Norway. Making new friends in a situation like this is almost refreshing because nothing but the present matter. It takes a certain kind of person to take on an experience like this, and that is what has brought us all together. Even though I have only been here for two weeks, I have already made friendships that will last a life time. It's a swell group of people that we have here in Chile. We are all so weird and fun that we get along so easily without any effort.

Since friends are so important to me, I want to tell you a bit about some of the friends that are/have been posted about in my blog:

Ruby: I met Ruby because we have a couple of classes together. I met her on Monday night in my Chilean Communications class because we sat right next to one another. Ruby is a Scottish girl with an English accent who dresses classy, and has a rocking personality. From the moment we began talking, we instantly clicked as friends. And now, we do almost everything together. Just this weekend, I went to a party with her, helped her move, and have laughed so hard that my sides hurt. She's a wise gal; wise beyond our age and has been great fun.

Otisa: I met Otisa last weekend when I went to Viña for the first time with a bunch of people I already knew. Once we arrived to Viña, we went to a restaurant, where I ended up sitting right next to her. We talked about a lot of interesting things, and entertained the waiter to the point of where he was laughing at us. Otisa is from the good ole' state of Kentucky and is one of the funniest people I have met. The three of us, Ruby, Otis and I, are a dangerous trio. We all get along so well and already know each other so well because we are all so much alike. Otisa will tell you like it is, ain't no shame. She is wise and courageous like Aslan from "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," and I cannot wait to see what these next few months brings this powerful trio of ours.

Kira, Shivani, and Michaela: The three of these girls are so intelligent and quirky that it works. We have a lot of fun exploring the city together. I met these girls the first day of orientation because they were in group 13 with me. These girls are go-getters, and will definitely be very successful here. They are so funny and so fun to be with.

And then there are the guys: Marco, Jamie, Niall are three of the most interesting people you will meet. Marco is from Norway, and is just the sweetest, most gentlemanly guy you will ever meet. He is such a genuinely good guy, which is a unique feature to have in today's society. Jamie is from Scotland and is just so interesting and weird like the rest of us. Niall is from Ireland and is just this stand up guy. He has a great sense of humor, and is just this silly ball of human. I haven't hung out with them too much, but from what I have encountered, we will become great friends.

I am so relieved to have such a close community already and it is only week number two. I did leave out a lot of people that are in this extranjero community, but these are the few that I hang out with quite frequently. I cannot wait to get to know them more than I already have, and am so excited to see what next is for us in this great big adventure of studying abroad.

Week Two

Wow, it is so hard to think that I have already been in Chile for two weeks! I have already done so much, but I still have so much more to see. This week, being our first full week of classes, has been so hectic. But every single minute of this crazy week has been worth the experience.

Monday, being my first day of class, was interesting because both classes were cancelled. I had to wake up early and go to the university to confirm my schedule, but I didn't have any classes until 3:40pm. So after confirming my schedule, I went back home. I received an email saying my 3:40 class was cancelled. Sweet, so I still had some time until my second class, which started at 5:20pm. 4:30pm rolls around, and I decided to head to Casa Central a little early. I show up to class and sit next to this girl I had never met before, and we began talking until class started. We are waiting anxiously for class to begin, when suddenly, Jorge walks in and explains to us that our class has been cancelled for the day. So, about ten minutes into class time, we all head home.

Tuesday was definitely an interesting day. I woke up and headed to school by bus, hopped on the wrong bus. I got to explore the city with my friends, eat lunch with my family, and spent the evening in the city with my friends Ruby and Otisa.

Wednesday was such a long day. Classes began at 8:00am, and ended at 7:00pm. I ate lunch at school, and went home and basically went right to bed.

Thursday was so much fun! I only had one class in the morning, and then my weekend began. I spent the rest of the day at home relaxing and organizing my information for school, and in the evening, I got to enjoy Valpo's vivid night life with my dear friends that I have made here.

Friday was spent exploring Viña de Mar in the afternoon and helping Ruby and Jamie move into their new place in the evening, followed by a delicious dinner at el Pimenton.

The week has come to a wonderful close. It is exciting and sad to know that I have 18 weeks left to explore and I know that this is the greatest experience of my life.