Groovin with the Manjar and La Salsa (the dance kind)

This past week was my first week of “classes.” I use quotation marks here because standards of punctuality, honoring schedules, and teacher-student communication are quite different here than they are in the States. I had two classes that were supposed to start this week that I went to and then the teacher never showed up. I later learned by word of mouth that those classes are now beginning next week. The same thing happened to all of my friends and they’re all getting frustrated… but I have to admit that I don’t really care that much since I don’t have anywhere else to be and I’m happy not having homework. As long as the classes actually start next week and I can do my work and get good grades I’ll be ready to roll.

Once things do get going, I should be taking a class called Cine Foro (foreign films), an as of yet undecided history class, both of which start next week, the Spanish class that almost everyone on the Tufts program has to take, and an internship at this non-profit organization called ECO. The non-profit works in the poblaciones of Santiago which are the poorer areas of the city, since Santiago has some serious income inequality issues. ALSO, I’m taking one incredibly fun salsa class complete with a short and really intense Cuban salsa instructor, a few rhythmically challenged gringos, and some other people who I assume to be Chileans. More Dirty Dancing Havana Nights right? And finally, I’m going to teach English to other Chilean college students by the end of this month through a volunteer program at UChile, so hopefully I can make some Chilean friends through that. I guess my life won’t be that unproductive by the end of this month…

As of the end of my Peru escapade, I’ve just been settling into real life in Santiago. I love my host family, they’re really hilarious and I am always way overfed. They all have red hair, which is really uncommon in Chile because most people have brown hair. As far as the food goes, I still stand by my opinion that Chilean food isn’t very delectable, but my host family’s kitchen is slowly changing my mind since they eat really well. If I come back from Chile overweight I won’t be surprised, so get ready for some lovehandles. My best food discovery is this stuff called “Manjar” (pronounced Man-har) which is basically caramel, but is the consistency of peanut butter. They eat it on EVERYTHING and it’s quite delicious. They eat it almost as much as they eat avocado and mayonnaise, which are also on EVERYTHING. Manjar covers the bread/apple/pastry department and avocado and mayonnaise cover everything else. Literally.

I have also been gallivanting around Santiago with my group of girl friends here, going out to different bars, discoteques, and salsa clubs, and just trying to get a feel for the nightlife. It seems like there’s always something going on any day of the week so we’ve had lots of options, some better than others, and we’re having a great time. It’s going to be really annoying to come back to the US and not be able to go to clubs because I’m not 21, so I guess we’re just living it up here. My little crew consists of me and 6 other girls since we only have 4 boys in our program who aren’t really fans of the discoteques, but we’re constantly meeting new people so it’s always an adventure. People go out here around 1am and come back around 5am which makes for one tired crew of gringas (meaning me and my friends), but then again, we don’t have school yet so it doesn’t really matter right now.

Tonight we’re going to a new salsa club to try out or newly acquired moves from salsa class… I’ll let you all know how that goes. Hasta luego! (until later, for the spanishly challenged)

P.S. One last random observation: when we learn Spanish in school we call the language “el Español”, but here everyone calls it “el Castellano”. Apparently, “el Español” suggests that it is Spanish that’s only from Spain, and Castellano is the type of Spanish that’s spoken in Latin America. I can’t believe no Spanish teacher ever told us about that before I came here, weird.