Hola from South America amigos! It has been awesome discovering Santiago by foot, bus and train, although I get home every night and am exhausted from all the Spanish I need to focus on during the day (I know this will eventually get easier with time!). I have been here for a little over a week but with everything that has happened, it honestly feels like waaaay longer.
In the 8 days that I’ve been here I have: 1) met and bonded with everyone on my program (aka all the other GW students here with me), 2) completed a week of orientation with our program director, 3) moved in with my host family, and 4) planned out potential classes that I will take. So, considering all of these very important things that have occurred, you can understand how it feels like much longer than a week. Our program director, Lise-Anne, an American-turned-Chilean has been amazing at helping us integrate into our new lives in Santiago. Having studied abroad here herself when she was our age AND as the program director for 13 years, she seems to understand pretty much whatever we happen to be going through during this big change in our lives. She has been imperative for me for all types of questions, many of which have to do with language, but also tips on how to dress daily due to the shocking fact that it is wintertime here.
I asked a very important personal question in my last post: is it REAL winter there?
Friends, I have the answer… yes, it definitely is. The morning that I arrived in Santiago it was 29 degrees (F) and FREEZING. I had just disembarked the plane where I slept very minimally, so it was really just adrenaline that kept me going that first day. A GW gal named Kelsey was on my flight from Houston, so we waited for our taxi to the orientation hotel together, shivering in our plane clothes that had felt excessively warm leaving the heat of a North American summer but did nothing in Santiago where we could see our BREATH in the morning air.
The theme of being cold has persisted throughout this first week. Since central heating is very expensive in Chile, most families and buildings opt to not pay for it and as a result, they have these small gas heaters called “estufas.” I do not exaggerate when I say I am TERRIFIED of my host family’s estufas. There have been many cases of carbon monoxide poisoning due to estufas that result in death (the most recent one was a family of Brazilian tourists a month ago) so… YIKES. I’ll be cold, thanks though. (I do, however, have a heated blanket in my bed so I have spent a LOT of time there in the past week haha).
Another facet of Chilean winter that isn’t unique to here but I certainly have noticed a lot is the drastic daily change in temperature. I will wake up and its 29 (thus making the house SO COLD) but by the time I leave to meet friends or go to orientation, I barely need a jacket over my sweater (55-6O degrees F). This does not last that long, as when the sun sets at 5pm or so, it returns to the 30s. I am not very good at layering so I am trying to adapt and always have a couple with me at all times- especially if I am inside (which is usually colder than outside)!
Diverting from the ever-present subject of winter onto a happier topic: the group of gals and guys that are in the GW Chile program are honestly awesome. I assumed that I would have seen a couple of them in class or something at GW, but they are pretty much all new faces to me. This presents a unique and special situation where we all have a similar background (GW, duh) but we are all on the edge of a new adventure and we will be that special type of friend that you meet while you are all experiencing a new culture and country abroad. I am already looking forward to having them as go-to people with a shared experience when I get back to GW in the spring. 🙂
This past week, my exploration of Santiago has routinely been accompanied by some of these cool people on my program. Notably, I went hiking with Grace and Kelsey to the top of Cerro San Cristobal (a smaller mountain in Santiago) where there are amazing views of the city (if its a clear day)! We went right after it rained, so after the 25 minute hike, we arrived at the top to views of the whole metropolitan area that is Santiago. I had not really thought about the sheer size of Santiago before I got here, so this hike truly put two things in perspective for me: 1) how vast the city is, and 2) how BIG the Andes are in comparison.
(PS thanks Evan for the cool new camera to take all these photos)
I am going to end this post here because I could definitely go on forever about Santiago, but feel I should probably break it up just a tad 🙂 I hope you all enjoyed learning a bit about winter in Chile!! (I know my DC friends are just desperate for even a breath of a cool wind in all that sticky heat… the invitation stands for a visit, @ everyone!)
Ciaoito!! (a chilean vocabulary STAPLE, pronounced like “ciao” and “-ito” put together) (I’ve never written it down and now I understand why its only an oral thing… it looks so weird… oh well)
Anyways, thanks for reading! xoxo
Cecilia
Cecilia in Chile - Fall 2019 