Mi Casa Nueva

I have finally arrived at my final destination for the next few months. Today I moved in to my new house with my Chilean family. I have a beautiful big room which makes up the second floor of the house. On one end of the room there is a view of the street and on the other I have a great view of the Pacific, as the house is situated on a tall hill, Cerro Los Placeres, like all of Valparaiso.

I arrived in Valpo on Thursday with the rest of the students that will be studying in Chile. The ride from Santiago is short, only about an hour and a half and cuts through vineyards and more arid hills. All the students stayed in a hostel in Cerro Bellavista and our orientation meetings took place down the street at a restaurent called El Gato Tuerto, which is visible in this picture above the colored buildings (Note: I haven't busted out the camera here yet and this is just an image I found online). Everything from here on in is in Spanish and it is very funny to be seeing friends and to only be able to speak in Spanish with them. It is also interesting to meet new people enrolled in the Middlebury program and never have the opportunity to speak with each other in our native language.

The orientation days were filled with meetings about everything from how our internships work, to Chilean slang, safety, and overviews of Chilean society. The past two days have been a flood of information in Spanish and it is quite easy to become exhausted with all the thinking. However, I think that the first few weeks down here, integrating Spanish into my life slowly, has really helped me. I am much more confident in my Spanish than when I was back at home. I have finally learned to allow myself to concentrate less on each word that everyone says and more on the general point of the converstation. I am really excited to be taking things slow, thinking in Spanish, and experimenting with new ways of saying things. It is easy to say this now because it is my first few days here and I am sure that within a week or so I will detract this statement and denounce Spanish as the tongue of Satan. Yesterday afternoon after a city tour and all the classes the last thing I wanted to do was hear more Spanish. Fortunately I got over it and spent the night with the others in the hostal stumbling over our words and laughing at each other's mistakes.

As I said, yesterday all the students went on a two hour walking tour of some of the better known parts of the city, Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepcion. These areas are located on steep hills that come out of the downtown of the city and have sweeping views of the ocean. All the houses and buildings on the hills are painted in different bright colors and seem to grow out of one another. This is a common theme to this city, as it is the only city in Chile without a city planning department. Many of the small streets that steeply wind up the hills have sharp corners that reveil terraces with small hidden restaurants, hotels, and overlooks of the city. I feel that it is impossible to really learn these parts of the city and it is definately impossible that a map could chart all these secret passages and walkways. The city has a very organic feel to it setting it apart as the most unique city that I have ever seen.

Finally I have some free time and tonight I may go out and see what a Saturday night is like in Valparaiso. For now I will adjust slowly and take things easy.