It’s not all bad, when I confess that my honeymoon period is officially over. The novelty of my move to Santiago has certainly died down; I’m facing the pressure of know very few people in a huge university; the caloric side of Chilean food and red wine is catching up with me; and the end of winter /pre-spring time rains have made themselves comfortable in the city.
As reality kicks, so does the personal understanding that all that’s happening around me is very real. For the first time in my life, I’m actually in a Latin American city to live, to enroll and attend classes at a university, to make substantial friendships with people from all over the world. While all that seemed to me at first mildly paralyzing, it’s slowly becoming quite captivating. Today I even picked up my Chilean foreigner’s identification card, ensuring my residency here for the duration of my studies. If I were to give a label to my transitory period right now, I’d say that it’s the post-honeymoon cold feet. This new life your living in not just for a few sun soaked weeks, but an established life change. In my case, study-abroad is not a life change, but it feels a little like one at the beginning.
To give you all a better idea of what this new world is looking like for me, my school schedule is as follows:
Lunes- Radio-Journalism Workshop from 10-12:45 pm; lunch at home; Aesthetics of Modernism and Post-Modernism from 4:30-5:50.
Martes- Contemporary History of Chile from 10:00-11:30 am (this is a course with IFSA-Butler, my abroad program, rather than with La Católica)
Miercoles- Perfecting the Spanish Essay from 2:00-4:00 pm; race to the metro to get to a campus on the other side of the city; Aesthetics of Modernism and Post-Modernism from 4:30-5:50.
Jueves- Contemporary History of Chile from 10:00-11:30 am
Viernes- starts my three day weekend 
My schedule is very light certain days, and the level of homework is rather mild compared with Kenyon, so I’m on the lookout for some sort of volunteering gig or internship I could get involved in. What would really be great would be to make some money, after spending my entire summer without pay, so I may try and inquire about that option. However, I don’t know what the restrictions are about working in a foreign country without a ‘workers visa.’ We shall see…
I’ve been doing a good bit of reading, finished up A Confederacy of Dunces, which I’d started all the way back in old Miami. For those who have not read this gem, I suggest you put it on your list. If you remember being a fan of Voltaire’s Candide, or Cervantes’ Don Quixote, this is precisely your humor, just with mid-20th century New Orleans thrown in, rather than mid-evil Europe. I’ve been complimenting these readings with some books in Spanish. This is still a tumultuous process for me, and I finally have the time to try and improve these shortcomings. I’m reading some cuentos (short stories) right now, which are good practicing, as they are not too overwhelming nor difficult to digest.
On the people front, I’m certainly meeting new people all the time. My radio course has proven to be the most socially stimulating. Maybe because it’s through the School of Communications, jajajaj!! sorry… But really, yesterday I was talking for a long while with a group of people from the class, Chileans, Spanish exchange students…the novelty of simply talking to non-American’s apparently hasn’t wore down for me. The two Spanish gals invited me to sign up for a salsa course with them. I can’t dance ‘formally’ to save my life, so I figure, when in Rome! I’m still having lots of fun adventures with Ben, and he’s been introducing me to new people he’s met as well. The two of us combined, we’re making a good team.
Also, I bought a bike, but am still waiting to see how I feel about it. I got a road bike, the same type I have at home, but 50 times less expensive. It’s been raining, and the breaks haven’t been working well. The seat is rock hard, and the tires don’t exactly jive well with the poorly maintained streets. Francis told me that I should buy a cruiser bike. “Just because road bikes are good in Gringolandia, doesn’t mean they’re gonna be good here!” My vanity shut him up, and I bought the bike anyways…why did I think I knew better than a Chilean? At least I’ll look cool…
Did a little cooking for the family: pasta, chorizo, broccoli, mushrooms, and onions
Vino!
The red ranger, lost cousin of the silver bullet.
Piggy Bank decorations, Chilean past time, cachai?
Chilean Nationalism
It’s amazing you wrote so funny and so well reflected. I read it over and over it was a wonderful time with lots of laughs, singing, dancing, eating and preparing it.
Living with you for six month was real real good. Life is continuing and we are going different ways, always we will have the memory what we will keep and cherish as a treasure somewhere deep in our hearts.
Lots of love and thank you for being you.
Liz