Chillin in Chile - Athena

 

Tiffany and I outside of our school in our Vanna
White poses, lol

So it's now we've been in Santiago for five days. We're back in school and spending a lot of time in class. On Wednesday we had 4 hours of class; 9 hours on each Thursday and Friday and 9 more hours tomorrow. It's been a rude awakening to go from 'vacation' thinking to 'school' thinking so suddenly. One really cool thing is that our classes aren't just exchange students, about half of our class is Chilean. I've really enjoyed chatting with the Chilean students during our breaks and lunches. It feels like I'm getting to know the real Chile. During class I sit apart from the other UNC students so I can get more chances to interact with the Chilean students. I don't mean to be anti-social with my travel mates; I just want to take advantage of this chance to meet new people.
   Tomorrow after class we're heading north to the town of Pucon, which is a popular destination. There's hiking, kayaking and lots of other activities. I'll be sure to post on the blog while we're there.
 

And, in another step of back to reality, I need to start to think about when I'll actually come back home to the U.S. Originally I was going to stay as long as possible until mid-March. But my travel budget is slowly shrinking and there's a couple of professional development things I'm thinking of doing too. At some point soon I need to sit down and think about all of this.
   But for now I'm glad to be in Chile and to just focus on that. Santiago has a very different vibe from Buenos Aires (where I spent two months), but I still like it. The city has a good pulse and lots of energy. The people are curious but friendly. There's not too many Black people here so we tend to get stares. And we get asked if we're Brazilian a lot. Part of me wonders if most people here think of people from the US as Whites and forget about the various minority populations there. That, however, is a much bigger question for another day.
   I'm writing this at just after 1 am local time. Earlier tonight we went to the Provedencia (a certain part of Santiago) Jazz festival with some of the exchange students from Emory. Even though it was a little chilly, I enjoyed the good environment and the music. Plus it was cool to chat more with the Vandy students.
  Ok, I'm off to bed. Hope you enjoyed this random post. Tomorrow we have 9 hours of class and a 12 hour bus ride. As always, more fun to come. Goodnight everyone!