Lo Empieza

Tuesday passed as the one week mark of this, my Chilean adventure. I am enrolled at two universities in Santiago, but classes did not start until Wednesday at La Pontifica Universidad Católica de Santiago (PUC), and not until next week at La Universidad de Chile (UCH). Although formal instruction hasn't begun, you could say that I have already learned a great deal about various aspects of Chilean and Latin American life, myself, and the wonderful friends I have started to make.

First of all, I can't imagine what my experience would be like without my fellow companions Garrett and Carol. The three of us, plus one returning student comprise the GW program of Chilean Fall 2011. Although we were essentially strangers when we first met last Tuesday, as of today we have become extremely close. I can't exactly say that our friendship is a testament to the power of cultural-ties, nor solely a testament to how awesome Carol and Garrett. Rather, I believe our quick friendship is a strong combination of both aspects. It helps having friends from GW not just because we share the same native language; moreover, it helps because we keep each other company while we are still newcomers to this large city. The dynamic of the group is one characterized by lots of laughter, inappropriate college jokes, a large dose of California beach-bum Spanglish, adventurous spirit, and the common desire to integrate and become multicultural. I could not ask for anything more.

As the least proficient Spanish speaker of the group, I often feel frustrated at my inability to convey certain thoughts and my inability to understand conversation. As I mentioned in my first post, it frequently depends on who is speaking, but in general people I have become attuned to I can understand with greater and greater thoroughness each day. Speaking is still difficult as I find myself tongue tied with the different verb conjugations. Sometimes I wonder if all this self-analysis while speaking actually slows me down and/or hinders my development. Is it better to try and avoid mistakes, or to make them and reflect later on what was said incorrectly? Overall I am pleased with my development considering that I have been in Chile for just a little over one full week. I owe a lot of credit to both Carol and Garrett, Lise-Anne, and my host family for really helping me out as I struggle.

In many ways Santiago is every bit as modern as US cities. Sure, the parts I have been exposed to thus far are the safer and more modern neighborhoods but it is amazing how far you can travel and never really leave the familiar world. They have McDonalds and Starbucks, plus more banks on every street corner than you could ever imagine. They have modern shopping malls that frankly put some US shopping centers to shame. The only thing I have yet to see is the conventional American strip mall, and I hope to keep it that way. The Chileans love US sitcoms. When it was announced that CBS was canceling 'Two and a Half Men' many Chileans were quite displeased. Furthermore, instead of dubbing the shows, they are broadcast in English with Spanish subtitles. This makes the process of immersion even more difficult, because frequently the TV is playing shows that I would watch from the comfort of my own home in the states, and in English.

I am quite excited about all the opportunities that I have here in Chile. However, I would be lying if I didn't tell you the number one thing I am looking forward to is the start of my ´fútbol varones´ (men´s football) class. It meets M, W, F for 80min each day. It has been a long time since I have touched a good soccer pitch, and I can't wait to get back to the sport that I once enjoyed so much as a little-tyke.

That´s it for this post. If you have questions or comments feel free to leave them in the comment section on this page or on my facebook page www.facebook.com/cmguinn. Also, if you have a particular topic you would like me to address just let me know!

Ciao,
Charlie

Después yo llegue en Santiago.

First word of advice to any Gringos headed to Chile or anywhere else in Latin America: Fly LAN Chile, best airplane experience I've had since a Delta pilot gave me plastic wings in first grade. As if the 44 different on demand movies and other in flight entertainment weren't splendid enough, nothing quite compares to landfall on the Chilean coast during sunrise in the southern hemisphere. The landscape looks as if the mountains and the sea went through a nasty divorce and a family-court judge had to draw a line down the center to end the vicious competition for property. Except in this case it's the massive and barren Andes meeting the vast Pacific Ocean, all expressed as one of nature's more beautiful love children.

The landing in Santiago was extremely smooth. As an expression of their appreciation the Chileans made a nostalgically old gesture by applauding the pilot's handiwork. The Arturo Benítez Aeropuerto de Santiago is about the size of the Providence airport in Rhode Island, and is constructed a good distance northeast of downtown Santiago. It is surrounded to the south and to the east by a semi-sprawl of shanty houses mixed in with apartment buildings. The most interesting observation I made while driving through these areas to downtown was the presence of television satellites fixed to the side of the shanty houses. In my opinion, this confusion of priorities is fairly hard to understand, but I suppose one does have to watch those all important fútbol matches.

After a fifteen-plus hour travel experience I was hard pressed to switch into Spanish mode when I was initially greeted at the airport, but not too long into the day I found myself more comfortable both listening and speaking the language. By far and a way my reading skills are the most proficient, next is my listening which is about 80% proficient with Spanish and American taught speakers, and maybe about 50% with the native Chileans. Last place goes to speaking, which although understandable, is both awkward structurally and grammatically incoherent (so too is my English as I'm sure many of you will point out). At this moment, the eve of my second day in Chile, I am happy to report that I feel more comfortable in each aspect of Spanish than I did yesterday. I hope this trend continues.

The transition from the less developed neighborhoods to the commercial district of downtown Santiago is fairly smooth with a "natural" progression of increasing building density and gradual rise in the quality of construction. By the time I arrived at the hotel I scarcely noticed I had reached a major city center. Santiago has many buildings that are twenty to thirty stories tall, but they are fairly dispersed throughout the city so the city appears smaller than the six million population would suggest. The venue for my first Chilean meal was picked by Lise-Anne, the director of George Washington's Latin America study abroad program. She took us to an observatory restaurant with a 360 degree rotating floor in a downtown skyscraper. From the vantage point we could see most of the city, a brief outline of the impressive mountain range obscured almost entirely by dust, and a half completed concrete frame of the tallest building in South America. The city beams of ambition, a welcome idol in difficult times.

At any rate, I saw an Alfa Romeo Brera today on the street, which is interesting because Fiat hasn't had an American presence in decades. Anyways, hopefully every subsequent blog can be concluded by as meaningful an automobile anecdote as this one was.

Buenas Noches,
Charles
"Don Juan"