First Week of Classes

So my ear is completely better; I am just now having to finish out the course of antibiotics. Classes began in earnest this week, so I guess that's my biggest news. My intensive Spanish course consists of three classes-- pronunciation, writing, and grammar. In reality, they all overlap somewhat and all include reading and speaking (if you're wondering why those aren't one of the three), it's just that each one of the three does some reading and speaking but only really deals with one of the above subjects in addition. Each of these three classes has different professors. My pronunciation instructor is in her last year of getting her Ph.D. here and is from Mexico, which helps her in teaching us about the regional differences in Spanish. My writing instructor is also in his last year of Ph.D. training in Chilean literature and is from southern Chile but will start as a full professor of Chilean literature at a university in Santiago next year. My grammar instructor is also a professor at the Univ de Concepcion and our professor for our practicum course (go out and interview Chileans, write about it, present it) and is our program coordinator as well (meaning she coordinates housing and the "hermanos" program). They are all extremely nice; the writing instructor is the strictest but is very intelligent and engaging (kind of reminds me of Mr. Roberts). The other two are just very good and nice.

For my Latin American Studies course, there are two classes-- one for history and one for literature and theater. The history professor seems quite nice, but she assigns A LOT of reading (given that it is in Spanish and we all have to look up sooo many words). The literature and theater professor is an actor, which means that the course involves incorporating literature into theater more than the reverse. We read a lot of poetry, but we also do a lot of acting. We will be putting on a play later in the term (not exactly what I expected, but entertaining nonetheless).

I went to the mall with my family this week, and it is exactly like malls in the US, except bigger (although I think we have more; theirs is more concentrated all in one area). While there I had the best gelato I have ever eaten (better than Italy even)! It is kind of far away, but I plan to return to the mall just for that! We haven't been out much this week since we're all still a bit sick, but we plan to go out tonight (since we don't have classes on Friday).

This Saturday we (my school group) are going to Lota, a former mining town about an hour from here that is now a fishing and tourist town. Two of the "hermanas" (including mine) are from there and will be our guides on the trip. We will be touring the mine, a museum, and the park and will also have lunch and some time on our own. We will later return to Lota to do our practicum (see above).

A note on the food, since some have been asking: Breakfast and "once" (eaten in the evening), consist of roughly the same thing: bread (chilean bread is somewhat different from american bread, sort of like italian bread or italian rolls but denser) toasted with options of cheese, ham, mashed avocado (this is really good!), quesillo (something which we don't have but which most resembles the indian cheese paneer if you've ever had it; i also really love this!), marmalade, and manjar (a dulce de leche spread which is also really yummy). Tea is also always drinken with breakfast and once, and on special occasions you have sopapillas (fried pastries sort like beignets, which are also yummy). Lunch is the main meal of the day and tends to be basically like American dinners. There is always some sort of appetizer: salad (lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, onion, egg with a dressing of oil and lemon), soup, or artichoke is what I've had so far. There is then a main dish, which varies a lot, but some of what I have had is: pasta (bowtie with tomato sauce and vegetables and ground beef), chicken and rice, empanadas (pastry filled with cheese or a meat mixture-- very traditional chilean), sandwiches (not that common), asados (BBQs) for special occasions etc. For dessert, we usually have fruit (most often cherimoya, something I had never eaten before) and tea.

I actually quite like the food here, despite some telling me it isn't that good. It isn't anything like Mexican food (not spicy at all), which is a common misconception of Americans. I do miss the variety available in the US, but there are some things I wish I could smuggle back into the US, some of which we have but which just taste better here and some which we don't have: Chilean bread, marmalade (much better than in the US), avocados (also better), manjar, quesillo, juice (especially raspberry and apricot), and of course the gelato!

Anyway, sorry this turned out to be so long. Ciao!