Exams and Ski

PHOTO ALBUM 1: Ski Trip (link)

The semester has finished with exams in two of my classes, in Fundamentals of Social Work and Sociology. I was 0.1 points away from not having to take the Sociology final exam, but unfortunately I had to take it and study pretty hard. Although, all is well now, free for the 20 day break or so. My friends wanted to hit up some skiing near Santiago for some vacationing after the semester, so 7 of us went to one of the ski resorts for a couple days to ski. The place was very beautiful and it’s right on the border between Argentina and Chile. It’s actually the only border crossing near Santiago, so all of the shipping trucks have to go right by the ski resort through the Andes to get to the border crossing. It’s actually a big problem because when the border is closed because of too much snow (which happens frequently), the trucks cannot pass and the trucks have to form a mile long line on the side of the road waiting for the pass to open back up. It’s a problem in terms of traffic as well as trading considering the goods do not reach their destination on time. It was nice to see some snow and bet back on skis after such a long time. I picked up pretty well although I was skiing with professionals, literally. One of the guys raced professionally back in the US. Where we were staying, I had reserved a bed in the cheapest part, but they didn’t have any more of that so they upgraded me for free to a bunk bed room with a private bath and a employee of the resort at my service 7:00am -8:00 pm. It was quite a nice upgrade while all my friends were stuck in the other place. I felt like I was more in Brasil during those days because about 80% of the people at the ski place were Brazilian. There were a number of times where I was listening in on Brazilians speaking in Portuguese and the Chileans speaking in Spanish and there were no problems in communicating considering the similarities of the 2 languages. As you were going up on the ski lift, sometimes you were directly overtop the road and the large shipping trucks that carry materials over to Argentina or trucks from Argentina carrying materials to Chile, to the port to be shipped off to Asia or on the coastline of northern South America or Central America. Also, there were tons of Army people with their special gear doing trainings and I don’t even know what. Some were doing the pizza all the way down the mountain, while others were professionally zig zaging and zipping all over the place. It was quite humorous to see the army men all geared up professionally doing the pizza all the way down. The mountains weren’t crowded at all which made for some nice skiing. I did the challenge of some black diamonds which I did alright with. I certainly wasn’t zipping down the mountain, but I was able to avoid falling more than once or twice which was sweet. We returned to Santiago and I said farewell to my gringo friends as they were heading off to Perú to the Amazon to travel a little more. I headed back to Viña del Mar for the week.

Mi Familia Chilena: My Chilean Family

After the Orientation, we finally got to meet the families that we would live with. I live with a family of 3: the mother, the father, and the 24 year old son. The family is incredibly nice. The mother, Angelina, is a house-wife, making all the meals, taking care of the house, keeping up with the gossip of all the family friends and relatives, doing the wash and all that. The father, Rolando, is a executive of a local company that is in charge of the parking meters of Viña del Mar. I'm really not exactly sure what he does, but yeah. He goes to work in the morning, comes back around 2pm for lunch, and then returns to work at about 4:30, and then comes back home around 11pm. His work is about 40 minutes away in a nearby town called Villa Alemaña (German Villa). The son, Pelao, is a 5th year Industrial Engineer Student at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. There are two other daughters that are both married and live outside of the house. Fernanda, the oldest, lives in Santiago with her husband and two children of 3 and 5. Loreto, the middle daughter, lives in Viña del Mar with her husband, near to her parents, and works in a nursery caring for the children. The house is about a 8 minute bus ride from the center of Viña del Mar and about a 15 minute bus ride to where my classes are in Valparaíso. I eat all my meals in the house which isn't a problem because Angelina makes really good food. Rico! Breakfast is either cereal and milk or bread and jam. Lunch is the big meal of the day which generally always has cut tomatoes with salt and cucumbers with vinegar, cut avocado (really good) and lechuga. Some things that might be eaten during lunch include mashed potatoes, beef, completos (hotdogs with mayonaise and avocado and tomato)

First Semester Wraps Up

Culture Class: Chilean Families

PHOTO ALBUM 1: Chilean Family (link)

So, looking at some differences in the families of Chile and United States. Families in Chile are a lot closer considering the children do not leave the house until after they have finished college. Most college degrees are 6 years so the majority of the children stay in the house until age 26 easily. Typically, the women are housewives and take care of the house as well as make all the meals. They also serve to keep the nuclear family updated on family news as well as all social happenings. Living at home provides for a much different university experience considering that you aren't surrounded by friends all the time like in the United States. Lunch is served around 2:00 in the afternoon so you return home for lunch. Lunch is the largest meal of the day. Since the Chilean family is closer, the mother is generally wants to make sure that your well dressed it's cold out, that you have an umbrella if it's raining, that you're feeling well, that everything is going well. So the involvement of Chilean parents lives in the lives of their children in the university is much greater than in the United States. Since all the family lives together in the house, it's not abnormal that 2 brothers of 23 and 25 share a room and sleep in bunkbeds. You're expected to tell the family if you aren't coming home one night or if you are getting back later than expected so they don't get worried. On Sunday, the family generally all comes together for a big lunch. The children that no longer live in the house generally come to the house quite often just to talk and see how things are. All meals are eaten the in the dining room where there is no TV. A man comes weekly to completely clean the house and give the mother a break. Water heating is controlled by turning on a heater with a match that heats the water for the house. Dinners at night are at about 9pm and are generally leftovers from lunch. Gas is expensive in Chile so central heating doesn't exist nor any system of heating for that matter. The only heating is a small stove that heats the corner of one room. That means bundling up in the house is a must. Shoes are not expected to be taken off at the door.

Culture Class: Flaite

It's said that Chile is very classist which I could agree with considering my experiences, but I have not found that it's any more classist than the United States. One cultural aspect of Chile is the use of the word "flaite". I think a good comparison would be that of the word "gay" in English in the way that it's used as a demeaning word towards something else. Also a good comparison would be "redneck" but the word "flaite" carries a much more negative connotation. Flaite is (link). This group that the upper class has labeled has a speech that is noticeably different and they are also identified by "flaite" clothing. The term is used to describe the people as well as parts of the city that are run down as well as anything that is bad. "That's so flaite" or just simply "flaite" is used quite frequently in Chilean speech. The "flaites" cannot be defined with a specific racial minority but rather from a different economic class. There are many youtube videos that make fun of flaites so just for educational purposes, I've included a link to one of these extremely classist videos (link). It does not seem to be viewed as a vulgar term to use or offensive term by most Chileans of the middle and upper class.