¿Cachai?

Another week comes to an end . . . and not much has happened.

We've been having orientation ALL WEEK. Again. Honestly, I feel like we've just been constantly shepherded around from one city to another and back. At the same time, it's been nice to see where all of the buildings are located. At PUCV, there is no one central campus. There are just about 20 buildings scattered throughout the city.


Casa Central, where I'll have a few of my classes. It seems like it might be the main building at PUCV? I have no idea. It's also partially outdoors, which is weird but sweet at the same time.


We also got to choose classes, which was wicked old school. It's funny how we all complain about OASIS being from before the stone age... but we actually had to go into this huge room where there were representatives from each department, and you'd choose the classes that you wanted to take from each department. I had some people try to convince me to not take a certain class, which wasn't appreciated. Just because I can't speak Spanish doesn't mean 'm entirely incapable . . . .

So my classes are as follows, for those who care...:
Political History of Chile in the 20th Century This is a class through the law school that someone tried to talk me out of. Pshh. Honestly, I think I might be most excited for this...
Espanol Oral y Escrito Boo... just a necessary class so I don't graduate in 2014
Historia Moderna de Chile A class exclusively for foreigners that will hopefully overlap a bit with the politics class... we'll see!
Contemporary Latin American Literature Again, another requirement
Adolescent psych Boo..
Jugeos Mapuches Okay, I lied. This is the class I'm most excited about. The Mapuches are an indigenous Chilean group who have had huge conflict issues with Chile in the past. And we get to learn all of their games. For credit. I couldn't be more excited.


The history building. Which is a castle. And is where about half of my classes will be. I've never taken courses in a palace before...


So honestly, it's been kind of a boring week. I'm pumped because orientation is officially over, and we don't start classes until Wednesday. Tomorrow is an adventure to Pablo Neruda's house in Valparaiso, which should be fun. And hopefully there will be a few other day trips with all of this free time that we suddenly have.


OH! I lied. We did have a bit of an adventure today...
My neighbor Allison and I usually walk the mile to the CIEE office in the mornings when we have to be there for meetings. Today, we were running a bit late because we had to be there at 8:30 and didn't feel like leaving our houses until 8:10 or 8:15. So we decided to take one of the micros to the building. We hopped on the first that said Plaza Viña, Libertad, y Uno Norte. Together, these three locations form a perfect triangle around where we needed to be. We got on, paid our 250 pesos or whatever it is, and told the driver we were going to the Plaza. We drive for a bit, go past the Plaza, and get up to Uno Norte, which is the street the CIEE building is on. We make comments about how PERFECT it is that the bus is going to take us almost EXACTLY where we need to go, because that never happens...

Yeah, well, it didn't happen. We needed the bus to take a left, but it took a right. We recognized the fact that we were going in the wrong direction, but there were no other city names on the sign on the front of the bus, so we assumed it was going to do a loop of Uno, and we'd get back to the center of Viña with enough time.

That didn't happen either. We start going further and further into the cerros (hills) of Valparaiso, into a neighborhood called Miraflores. We kept waiting for the bus driver to turn around and start a new loop. Slowly, the bus starts to empty as we quickly arrive in the middle of nowhere.

Honestly, no where. At this point, we've about a 20 minute drive beyond our original destination. But if we had gotten off the bus, we would have waited FOREVER for the next bus to take us back into the city. We're essentially over the mountains of Valparaiso, on the other side, just riding the bus around, getting funny looks from the driver who keeps saying "iHAY QUE BAJAR!" (You need to get off!)

Finally, he turns around. We breathe a sigh of relief, thinking we'll just hitch a ride with him back into the center. Oh, no. Of course not. He pulls into a parking lot/gas station with all of these other buses, and finally asks us where we need to go...

At this point, the program directors of CIEE are calling us frantically to see where we are. They've already called Allison's host mom, who's worried about us. And it doesn't help that when they ask "WHERE ARE YOU TWO?!" we can only respond with "We have absolutely no idea."

We eventually get off the bus. You know, the move we should have made way back long ago when we were only about 1/4 mile away from the office and the bus took the wrong turn? But now we're stuck on this road in the middle of God knows what small town, without even knowing which direction we need to go in, because the mini-skyline is far in the distance. After a few minutes of... well, not panic, because we were entirely amused by this situation, a collectivo came up that said VINA!!!! (Collectivos are basically taxis that you share with other people to keep the prices down, but bring you closer to your actual destination than a bus would)

So all's well that ends well. We got to the CIEE office a bit more than an hour late, after seeing a wonderfully obscure part of Chile. We still have no idea where we were. But it was pretty!


Okay, I'm done boring you all for now... And Mom and Dad, don't worry... I've learned my lesson: Never, EVER, anticipate the actions of a bus driver....

Love,
C