Chilean Sea Blog: La Primera Semana

Now that I have laid a little bit of the foundation for what Santiago is like, I can start writing about what I have been doing! I have literally only been in this country for eight days and it already feels like I have been here for months! I adjusted very quickly and I already feel comfortable in this incredibly foreign place. This is not a result of my own doing in the slightest. On that note I want to publicly thank in the blog-o-sphere all those who have been so kind to me—from the beyond generous Santiago Chabad family who has been housing me to the patient strangers who engage me in conversation on the bus as I fumble and mumble through what I hope sounds like Spanish. Thank you everyone.

I remember my first couple days in Santiago mostly for a lot of small talk conversations with the rest of the group and desperate attempts to remember everyone’s names. The next day many of us remarked it was even more a more difficult day for names because everyone changed their clothes! Our whole group stayed in a hotel that night for orientation and the next morning everyone’s families came to pick them up while I made my way in a cab over to Chabad (a Jewish community center, they have them all over the world!). Although it was to be expected that those at the Chabad were going to be incredibly kind to me, I was, and still am surprised at their amazing generosity to a stranger (me). When I arrived the Rebetzin (Rabbi’s wife) brought me back to their house, a two-minute drive from the Chabad center, the enormous and beautiful new building where I met her. She immediately offered me food and assured me that she was already in touch with some other families to see if I could live there but it would be absolutely fine for me to stay there for the semester as well.

There are also eight other Argentinian girls staying there for the month serving as day camp counselors in the Chabad. I have thoroughly enjoyed their company and it has been very interesting to see all the things we have in common even though we practice Judaism differently. They want to travel just like I do, but through being a shlucha (person who travels to another country to serve in one of the Chabad community centers). I helped one with her English application to Israel for the year, but I do not think that application was being sent to Brovenders (the school that I went to). I caught them weighing themselves after the fast on Thursday was over, and laughed because that is exactly what I like to do as well!

On Friday I met the rest of the group by the Universidad Andres Bello for a tour of the campus from student guides. We were shown the library, where the printers are, and how to make photocopies. It was at this point I realized that I am actually here for classes and not just to run around exploring! Not to say that I won’t do that as well, just not during class time (maybe). Andres Bello is located in an area with a million other universities in the surrounding area. It is vacation time now for the Chilenos but I bet in March the area will be booming with students. Recently there have been a lot of student protests fighting for education reform (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Chilean_protests) so there is a lot of graffiti all around the city as well as on university buildings themselves from the protests. Students also took chairs and desks and turned their legs into the gate of another university-looking building in what seems like their headquarters, but I am not absolutely sure about this (see photos).

After the University tour we went on a bus to get a tour of central Santiago. Our first stop was this area called Plaza de Armas which has a lovely fountain and this grand church called Iglesia de San Francisco (see photos). We then drove up this mountain/hill called called Cerro San Cristobal for a view of the whole city. You’ll be just as surprised as I was when you see the pictures to learn that apparently we did not even go up on the best side! There is an even more beautiful view than the one shown in my photo. I am very excited to hike up the mountain on foot to see for myself.

At this point I was getting a little nervous because I knew we were almost coming to the end of the tour and I was going to need to figure out how to take the bus back to where I lived. I had no idea where the bus was, or how I was going to find it. Thankfully when I was asking one of the directors about the bus, one of our guides said that he knew exactly where the bus was, he was taking the same one, and he would help me buy a BIP card (Santiago MetroCard). I felt so relieved and was very excited to have made my first Chilean friend.

My first shabbat was incredibly lovely and I do not have that much to write about because it was exactly like it is at home. I enjoyed the classic praying-eating-sleeping routine and could not be happier to just be for a moment. I met many members of the community and after all of these first time experiences that I am having, it was nice for something to finally feel familiar.

After shabbat I met up with some friends in a neighborhood called Bellavista. It is an artsy-bohemian type neighborhood with lots of fabulous looking restaurants, both for cheap eats and more expensive dining, bars, discoteques, and neat little cobblestone streets. I met my friends at a bar and practiced my Chilean patriotism by sampling their national cocktail, a Pisco sour. It was very delicious. My friends and I then went to a discotheque called “Amnesia”. Yes, it probably looked as you are imagining. A bar-mitzvah amount of flashing lights and smoke filled the air. It was very fun to dance with my new friends, but it really made me miss dancing with my friends from home. I won’t tell you what time I headed home, but as I was walking to catch a taxi I heard people speaking English. This is very rare in Santiago so I asked them where they were from. As it turned out they were students from the University of Maryland taking a Winter Course here! I even recognized one of them from going on a Hillel Alternative Spring Break! Even though this experience is literally broadening my world, it still proves to be incredibly small!

On Sunday I went back to Bellavista to explore those cobblestone streets that I mentioned. If you go a little bit deeper into those streets off of the main avenues there is a whole new energy that emerges. Every building is covered in amazing street art murals. My friend and I talked about how this is how we pictured or wished all of South America to look like before we came. The colorful painted graffiti on the walls mixed with eccentric short buildings and kooky architecture made me feel like I was in my element (see photos). I am so excited to go back there and explore more!

Monday was our first day of classes and that was standard. The best part of school is lunch! There are many adorable places in the area where you can get a four-course meal of salad, soup, a main (most likely another salad for me!) and dessert for about $6.00! Tuesday night I went to see the movie Win Win (Imdb it! It’s with Paul Giamatti and was awesome!) in a park with some friends. Wednesday night I went to a Jazz festival in another park with some other people. We were sitting on bleachers watching the sunset over the Mapocho River that is brown because of the mining from the mountains that surround us. All we could think about is how happy we were in that very moment. After this crazy week I am very much looking forward to Shabbat and what this next week will bring!

Ciao!