Moving In, Moving On

Welp, I’m all moved in with my new family for the next few months! I don’t know how, but I got lucky again! I have an amazing host family here in Arica. I live with my dad, Pedro, mom, Betzy, and 14 year old brother Cristobal. I also have twin older siblings, Noemi and Pedro Pablo, but they both attend university in other cities in Chile so they’re not at home. I will get to meet them in a few weeks when the come for a week to celebrate Chile’s Independence Day on September 18! I have a lovely house that's pretty close to everywhere I might need to go. We also have a maid, Fanny, who brings her adorable little 2 year old son, Juan Diego, with her everyday. I actually think that Fanny and Juan Diego might live at the house, because there's a garage-type building that's not connected to the house that I haven't been in, but that's where Fanny hangs out during the day when she's not cooking or cleaning, and I'm pretty sure she and her family live there. Still unclear. And then we have a little poodle named Puco. At first I was in love with Puco and was so happy to have a dog, but then my bedroom kiiind of got infested with fleas and I kiiind of was attacked... But no worries, I've now moved into a different room while they decontaminate the upstairs and Puco has a nice new haircut :) Typical me getting odd skin bumps/rashes/reactions. It really wasn't that bad.

On a new note, we’ve completed our first week of classes here and so far it’s been pretty calm and easy. We have three hours of Spanish lessons in the morning, then we go home for lunch with our families, and then we have a lecture in the afternoon. I live about a 30 minute walk from the campus we use for Spanish classes in the morning, and about 15 minutes from the campus for our classes in the afternoon. I could also easily take a taxi or a colectivo, and both are very cheap ($1-3) but it’s nice to walk around and get to know the town more and to get some exercise in! All taxis have a set price, so no matter where you go in Arica, you won’t pay more than $3 for a taxi. And if there are more people in the taxi, then you all spit the $3 fee so it’s even cheaper! Colectivos are kind of like a taxi, but each car has a number or a letter on it, and each number/letter represents a specific route that the colectivo takes around town. So you find the colectivo that goes near where you need to go, and you pay $1 for the ride. It won’t take you directly to your house, but for example, there’s a colectivo that drives down a main road only two blocks from my house, so I can easily take that if I need to. But like I said, most things are within walking distance for me so I try not use my money on transportation.

I’m really liking the group of students on the program as well! There are 4 guys and 19 girls, and surprisingly a lot of them are Midwesterners! Since we don’t have much school work yet we’ve all been hanging out (the whole group, not just the Midwesterners) before and after classes and finding all of the good places to eat and shop. There’s an amazing street market on Sundays (probably one of the only things open on Sunday) and it’s literally the longest market I’ve ever seen before. I walked it last weekend with Katy and it took us about a half hour to get through the entire thing, and we didn’t even stop that much because neither of had brought money. I cannot wait until tomorrow so I can actually shop there. They have anything and everything you could think of, from clothes and shoes to notebooks and shampoo to souvenirs and decorations, all for an extremely low price. AND we can bargain. I’m so excited.

Okay well it’s lunch time so I have to go, but here are some photos before I go!

This is my bedroom I USED to live in before the flea infestation

Mi Casa :)



The Sunday Market



Cristobol and Papa Pedro with the gifts I brought for them



Puco's new haircut... she's not too fond of it.



El Morro- the big tourist attraction in Arica



All for now,

Heidi

Week One: Orientation

After a long layover in Miami (which I spent most of the time at the beach), a long flight to Santiago, and a short one on to Arica, I arrived at my destination with all of my baggage. Each layover, I met up with more and more of the students from my program so it was nice to not have to go through customs and all alone. Our coordinators met us at the airport and loaded us all onto the bus that then took us to the hotel where we would be spending the next five days for orientation. We got a chance to explore the city, check out the beaches, talk with locals, and try some delicious (but very large) meals. Arica is a city of about 177,000 people, but around the city is a complete desert. There are barely any plants (besides imported palm trees) in the city because it’s very difficult to actually grow anything in the dry land. Who knew the land could be so dry right next to the ocean? I’m really liking this city, though. And since being here, these are a few of the things I’ve noticed:

-The people in Chile (and in Arica, more specifically) have a different accent from the rest of Latin America. They tend to drop the “s” sound in a lot of their words, making it difficult to understand them at times. They also have their own sayings and words that they use, called Chilenismos, so I’m trying to update my vocabulary.

-Lunch is the biggest meal of the day. However, the meals are much more spread out. Breakfast at 8, lunch at 1:30/2, dinner at 8/9. My stomach is trying to adapt to these long breaks in eating because I’m used to eating every 2 hours or so…. I think I’ll be buying lots of snacks here.

-We’ve also been eating a lot of fish here and I love it! Salads are also a part of just about every lunch and dinner. I haven’t noticed any other big food themes yet, but we’ve also only been at eating at the hotel. Once we move in with our host families things might be different.

-Sunsets here are BEAUTIFUL (when the clouds aren’t in the way). The sky turns PINK almost every evening.

-Things here are soooo cheap!! I love it so much. Bargains on bargains on bargains. I bought an adapter for $1, a pair of jeans for $6, and the program gave us each a cell phone for $30. It's not quite as cheap as Vietnam (there I got a cell phone for $16) it's still very cheap and very much okay with me!

-As if this town weren’t prefect enough, everyone takes naps after lunch. No, but seriously. All of the stores in town are closed from 2-6 because it’s “siesta time.” Even the students all go home for lunch and then don’t go back to school for about 3 hours so that they, too, can take a nap. What a genius idea, Arica!

-Apparently my name is difficult for the Chileans to say (or any Spanish speakers, really). Most of them call me “Hay-dee” and recently I’ve been told here that I look like Princess Diana, so the nickname “Lady D” has been catching on. I’ll take the compliment ☺

When I started this post I hadn’t met my entire host family yet, but now I’m on my second day with them and things are going really well! I’ll write all about them in my next post, so stay tuned!!

All for now!

-Heidi

I Do Believe It's Time For Another Adventure

Well, as many of you know, I don't like to stay in one place for too long. Starting Monday, I will begin my next adventure! I'm headed to Arica, Chile, the northernmost city in the country where I'll be studying for most of the semester. The way the SIT program is set up I will be living with a host family and attending classes at the Universidad de Tarapacá. The coursework is focused around public health, traditional medicine, and community empowerment, specifically in the indigenous areas of Chile. At the end of the program, we have 4 weeks to go out on our own and conduct our own research and gather data for our Independent Study Projects that each of us will then present as our final assignment for the semester. I haven't quite figured out what I'll be doing my project on, but something along the lines of infant nutrition in indigenous populations... maybe looking int some witchcraft and legends around infant illness... We'll see!

There are 22 other students from around the US who will also be joining me in this wonderful experience to improve my Spanish, engage in the local culture, try some new foods, learn all about the Chilean health system, and hopefully make some amazing new friends.

I'm so excited to see what this semester has in store for me :)



All for now,

Heidi