Wow! This week absolutely FLEW by! I guess that’s what happens when you have a week as busy as the one I’ve had (slash am still having), but it’s been good, and I’d much rather have time fly by than slowly crawl!
On Tuesday, I finally started my third class. It is a seminar on Chilean Culture designed for exchange students and sounds like it will be pretty easy and very educational. There are 4 units, one on Latin American Identity, one on History, one on Economy, and one on Political Science. Since I kind of feel like I definitely don’t know enough about Chile, I’m pretty excited to learn more and understand more about the history and culture of this country. The kicker is that the only evaluation is the final exam that is 100%! However, since I’m almost certain it will not transfer for anything for me I am considering taking it pass no pass which would allow me more time to focus on my other, more major relevant and challenging courses. Tuesday evening Gina and I concocted a delicious meal of hamburger patties with cheese and lettuce and ketchup! Qué rico!
Yesterday, Wednesday, was a LONG day. 12 hours away from my casa to be exact, from 8-8! However the 4 hour study sesh after an 8 hour internship day hopefully payed off on my first test today, we will see! My internship yesterday also supplied me with some entertaining experiences, such as teaching a class full of 8 year olds a tongue twister that went “A robot and a rabbit run with a ruler and a rubber”. It was particularly entertaining when the teacher discovered that in the US, an eraser is not referred to as a rubber and a “rubber” can often refer to something of an entirely different sort. I guess that’s a big reason why I’m there; to bring in the vantage point of an English and North American native! Besides that, most of yesterday was spent committing to memory all sorts of Political Geography theories and the entire literary work of Samuel Huntington’s “The Clash of Civilizations”. Yesterday concluded with the exciting purchase of plane tickets to Montevideo, Uruguay (via which we will go to Bueno Aires) with Gina’s mom in just a little over 2 weeks, Aapril 22nd-26tH! I’m VERY excited!
Today, I took my first test here in Chile. I am fairly certain I am not going to have the kind of abroad experience many speak of in which they do not actually do any work and get stellar grades, because I studied my booty off for this test the same amount (or more) than I do for any midterm at UCLA and it was entirely necessary to do so. However, in the end, I felt pretty good about how it went. I wrote 3 pages in Spanish and we received the answers immediately upon turning in our exam. I’m fairly certain I hit all the key points for the first answer, and several for the second but we will see. I have 3 more tests in that class, 2 in another class, and then the culture class test. I will definitely be studying down here, but it feels good to really be back in the swing of school even if it does mean taking tests. After class and our Tuesday/Thursday daily lunch on the grass at campus with Gina and Ariel, I came back to my casa and had my mine blown by Lost, went for my last run before the Half Marathon on Sunday (figured out a good running route!), ate a super Chileana once of pan and palta and te, did some skyping with by Big Bro, Little Bro, and Little Little Bro whom I miss dearly, and then we headed down to a Bienvenido Cena for the resedencial we live in. It was a little bit awkward since everyone seemed to already know each other and as it turns out our Residencial is almost all Chileans besides 2 Germans (we are DEFINITELY the only gringas), but after some dinner and a glass or two of wine and beer, things loosened up and it was nice to meet some of our living-mates and no longer be the two super random gringas that live here.
So, I survived these past 3 very busy days but definitely still have a few more days until I can relax on Monday. This week, I have really started to feel like I live here. I’m not sure if it’s just that I’ve hit that point where this tends to happen, or whether it’s the moving and having my own place and being more free and able to eat what I want and do what I want when I want, or the fact that I have become almost as busy (if not more so) as I usually am back home in the states. Regardless of why, it’s a really great feeling after being so homesick for so long. So, here’s to this weekend! Half Marathon 3 in a foreign continent, here I come (please don’t kill me)!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment